The Uncharted series is one of the brightest exclusives of Playstation consoles. All four sides received rave reviews in their day and sold millions, the latest from 2016 being considered the best ever. However, its recently released PC port left gamers pretty cold when the maximum number of concurrent players didn’t even hit 11,000.
Clearly that’s not much compared to previous PlayStation-exclusive ports, however judge for yourself: Horizon: Forbidden West has reached over 56,000, Spider-man over 66,000 and God for War even up to 73,000. Even the much-derided zombie horror Days Gone reached 27,000 concurrent players. Of course, this figure does not directly reflect actual sales, as not everyone necessarily has to play from day one. As an indicator of popularity, however, it is significant …
Where is the mistake? Definitely not in the technical state of the game, 90% of the reviews on Steam are positive, players praise the successful optimization, support for 4K and ultra-wide resolutions and the inclusion of the Lost Legacy data disc. I’ve received some criticism of the keyboard and mouse controls, but this is a gamepad-optimized game, so few could have expected miracles in that regard.
The fact that few people want to start the series from the fourth volume appears to be a much more likely reason. Although the story of the four is not particularly complicated, it does require some knowledge of the relationships between the main characters. The fact that we are currently experiencing the most active gaming period of the entire year and that people prefer to search for new things rather than recovering leftovers from the past certainly plays a role. Call of Duty, FIFA 23, Gotham Knights, Plague Tale: Requiem, and more have recently been released. Those who have already waited six years can also wait a few months for Steam discounts.
And then of course there is The Last of Us factor, an excellent game from the same developers that will also arrive on PC. Because why go to a locksmith when we can go to a locksmith, and the more mature PC audience might prefer more complex experiences to a hugely impressive but otherwise easily forgotten turn of action.
