- Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout attracted a staggering 1.5 million players within 24 hours of its launch.
- This blew past developer Mediatonic’s wildest expectations, creating network congestion and other problems.
- Gamers are ferociously “review bombing” the game – and frankly, it’s obnoxious.
It’s safe to say Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is an enormous success. More than 1.5 million people played the game during the 24 hours following its launch.
This achievement hasn’t come without growing pains, though
Gamers Obnoxiously Review Bomb Fall Guys Amid Server Struggles
With player numbers obliterating developer Mediatonic’s wildest expectations, the company’s servers are struggling – and often failing – to keep up.
Unsurprisingly, crotchety gamers aren’t happy. And they’re taking their frustration out the only way they know how: review bombing Fall Guys on Steam and other platforms.
Cut Mediatonic Some Slack
Fall Guys isn’t the first game to suffer from server problems like this. One of the most infamous examples occurred in 2013, when SimCity spent the first week or so of its existence unplayable.
Fans weren’t particularly happy then, either. And who could blame them? When you pay good money for a game you can’t play, you’re prone to being a bit upset about it.
Video: SimCity’s Server Meltdown Proves Fall Guys’ Launch Could Have Been Worse
The critical difference between Fall Guys and SimCity is just how much money they had behind them.
SimCity is a series owned and published by EA, one of the wealthiest companies in gaming. When they publish a game requiring online connectivity to function properly, they should have the resources to prepare for network activity far in excess of expectations.
And failing that, they should be able to fix server issues quickly. There’s just no excuse for how that launch went down.
Fall Guys deserves a lot more slack.
Video: Fall Guys Is Attracting Rave Reactions from Players
Its developer, Mediatonic, is a mid-level indie studio with its fingers in lots of pies. No one ever could have anticipated 1.5 million people would try to jump into the game on day one.
It would be unrealistic – and borderline fiscally irresponsible – for an indie studio to treat every release as though it’s going to become the best-selling title on Steam.
And besides, once the server issues became apparent, Mediatonic quickly notified their fans and began addressing them immediately. We’ve all seen much bigger developers fail to do this in the past.
Give Mediatonic a chance to fix the problem, and then judge the game on its merits. If you’re the type of person who thinks its launch-day struggles warrant a review bombing campaign, then the problem doesn’t lie with Fall Guys.
It lies with you.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.