After Generative AI PR Disaster, Let It Die: Inferno Peaks At Just 813 Players On Steam
Quinton is a Staff Writer from the United States. In his youth, Quinton was ridiculed for making video game ranking lists instead of paying attention in math class. In adulthood, people sometimes pay him for it. Life’s a trip.
Taking his first steps into the industry in 2020, Quinton has written for several digital publications, but his permanent literary home is right here at TheGamer.
Before striking up a conversation with Quinton, consider the risks: he’ll find a way to transform almost any topic into an analysis of either world history, Star Trek, or – at least this one’s relevant to his career – all his favorite role-playing games.
Between the overarching gaming community and media sites like ours, I reckon that every possible pun has been made about this game’s title, so I’m going to do my best not to pretend that I’m in any way original. Let it Die: Inferno, which has come under fire for – dang it, I didn’t even last a single sentence.
Let it Die: Inferno has been lambasted to a degree that few of this year’s games could possibly rival. The sequel to Grasshopper’s divisive 2016 Let it Die is soaked in generative AI. The response, as you might imagine, has not been kind. Once this stuff was spotted, any semblance of real hype for Inferno flew out the window. That sentiment might very well be reflected in publicly-available launch data, which casts doubt on potential profitability.
Before we dive into the Steam CCU, it’s important to note that we don’t know how the game’s faring on its other platform: PlayStation 5. It’s never safe to assume with this stuff, but it’s presumably fairly unlikely that it’s delivering solid results on Sony’s console when it’s really not looking great on PC.
Second, the developer has issued a statement confirming the AI-generated content, no doubt in a bid to clarify what doesn’t fit the bill. They’ve gone into precisely where it was used in relation to background art, voice content, and music. There’s even some contact info so that folks can reach out if they want more info. Suffice it to say, they’re hoping to get ahead of any declarations that other parts of the game were constructed in this fashion. Totally fair.
Regardless, I do think the damage has been done. Everywhere I look, people are flat-out celebrating the game’s paltry 813-player Steam CCU peak. Right now, it’s hovering around 277. That’s rough. I don’t actually want to join in the chorus of cheers over this because I presume that not everybody on the dev team was happy with these decisions. People’s livelihoods are at stake here.
At the same time, it’s fair game for reporting purposes, because this is not a good launch, and there’s a conversation to be had as to whether the wide-scale disappointment in AI usage has something to do with it. We’re never going to know what would have happened if the game didn’t use it at all, but would it have been at least somewhat higher? I dare say it would be.
One caveat here. Let it Die: Inferno’s user review score is currently “Mixed.” That’s not good either, but it’s hardly the worst possible outcome. It was “Somewhat Negative” earlier, but for the moment, at least, it’s evened out a bit. It seems some players are having a good time, if not a great time.
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