FORSPOKEN

FORSPOKEN came to us in January 2023 as a cautionary tale. Square Enix and Luminous Productions swung for the fences with this traversal-combat action game, but the launch was a masterclass in Marvel-isms gone wrong. Chat absolutely exploded over the banter. Clips went viral—not for being good, for being aggressively mid. We streamed 72.8 hours watching the discourse unfold in real time. Square Enix had to add a banter-reduction option mid-launch. Luminous Productions shut down not long after. We were there for 524 peak viewers experiencing the spectacular unraveling of what was supposed to be a flagship franchise.

72.8 hours streamed with 524 at peak tells the story. About 24,700 hours watched means people showed up curious what the deal was with all the viral clips. 332 average viewers held through some rough patches. Sometimes a game's failure is more compelling than its success. The house caught the entire lifecycle—hype, catastrophic reveal, emergency patches, studio shutdown.