Despite less than stellar player numbers, Last Flag has its fans and the developer has said it’s not going to call quits so quickly.
Celebrity endorsements are a common marketing tactic, and video games are no exception. Having a big name actor or musician advertising or featuring in your game, like Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077, is great for getting it noticed by casual and non-gamers.
However, it doesn’t guarantee success. For instance, Will Smith starred in a free-to-play survival game called Undawn a few years ago, but it went completely under everyone’s radar and was deemed a huge flop.
And while it’s still early days, new multiplayer hero shooter Last Flag looks to be off to a rough start too, despite being the brainchild of Dan Reynolds, lead vocalist of Imagine Dragons.
In case you haven’t heard (and you probably haven’t) Reynolds set up his own game developer called Night Street Studios, alongside his brother and band manager Mac Reynolds, in 2021, with the purpose of creating a game based on Reynolds’ love of capture the flag.
Last Flag debuted at Summer Game Fest last year, received a public demo in December, and launched on PC via Steam last week, on April 14. Unfortunately, Imagine Dragons’ own popularity hasn’t translated to Last Flag at all.
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According to SteamDB, it launched to just 558 players and those numbers haven’t improved, with an average of only a few hundred a day. By comparison live service flop Concord peaked at 697 players on PC, while Highguard attracted nearly 100,000 players when it launched in January.
Both games were also available on consoles, but were deemed such dismal failures that they were almost instantly shut down, with both developers collapsing in their wake.
Player numbers aren’t everything, but it goes to show how difficult it is to find success in the video game market nowadays, especially in the incredibly oversaturated multiplayer shooter genre.
Naturally, Last Flag was promoted by the official Imagine Dragons X account and despite it boasting 4.9 million followers, the announcement of the game’s release has seen only 755 likes and 97 reshares.
The Instagram announcement garnered more attention at 59,500 likes, while the launch trailer on YouTube has over 550,000 views.
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Fatigue with live service shooters has likely played a part, but Last Flag isn’t free-to-play and is being sold for £11.99, although that’s far cheaper than Concord’s £35 price tag. Until April 28, it’s also discounted to £9.59.
User reviews also appear mostly positive. ‘This is a game that takes me right back to those days when multiplayer games used to be about having fun. No grinding. No stupid unlocks. Just a group of strangers or friends online playing a fun game with fun mechanics,’ reads one.
‘Very fun gameplay! Fair price and glad to see no battle pass. This game is going to be my go-to game with friends,’ says another, with one player insisting Last Flag ‘does not deserve to be treated as the next Concord nor the next Highguard,’
In a statement to Bloomberg, Night Street Studios said it was happy with the critical reception but declined to comment on whether it was satisfied with the player numbers, only adding it aims to ‘build a sustainable community and nurture and grow it over time.’
Reynolds himself is optimistic about Last Flag’s chances, saying, ‘For us, success is not measured by having 100,000 players at launch. It’s measured by having a sustainable community that grows.’
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