Xbox surprise hit ‘beats’ big-budget PlayStation title on Steam

Over the past few years, games from PlayStation‘s first-party studios, such as ‘Spiderman: Miles Morales,’ ‘Horizon Forbidden West,’ and ‘God of War Ragnarok,’ have outshined the competition. With not as many first-party games, its rival Xbox hasn’t enjoyed the same level of success.
However, the tables seem to have turned for once as per the rankings posted on SteamDB. In its first week itself, Hi-Fi Rush, a game from an Xbox-owned publisher, has outsold Forspoken, a game that Sony PlayStation bought console-exclusivity for. This notable event involving the two console giants happened on an unlikely platform, Steam (PC).

Hi-Fi Rush currently sits at number 8 among the best-selling games on Steam between Jan 22-29, 2023, whereas Forspoken is not among the top 10. Interestingly, both games released in the same week: Forspoken (January 24), Hi-Fi Rush (January 25).
Hi-Fi Rush races ahead of Forspoken despite zero marketing and Game Pass availability
What makes Hi-Fi Rush’s runaway success on Steam impressive compared to Forspoken is the big difference in the marketing and availability of these two games.
Xbox both announced and released Hi-Fi Rush last week during the Xbox Developer Direct broadcast. In other words, there was little to no marketing before the game’s launch and almost no one knew much about it. On the flipside, Forspoken had been touted as a ‘next-gen gaming showcase’ since being revealed in 2020 as Project Athia. Coming with next-gen features, such as ray-tracing, it generated a reasonable amount of anticipation among fans, leading up to its launch.

Moreover, Hi-Fi Rush is also available on PC Game Pass, a paid gaming subscription that provides free access to a long list of games besides this one. On the contrary, Forspoken is not part of Sony’s subscription and players have to either buy it on PC or PS5. Despite this, Hi-Fi Rush has managed to sell more digital units than Forspoken on Steam.
The noteworthy success of Hi-Fi Rush comes at a time when Xbox most need it. With a highly anticipated Xbox exclusive – Starfield – releasing later this year, 2023 is shaping into a promising year for Xbox fans.
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