Syndicate Never ‘Could’ve Lived up to Some People’s Expectations’

With disappointing sales figures, and a lukewarm reception (PSLS gave it a 5/10), Starbreeze’s Syndicate reboot struggled to make an impact in the over-saturated shooter genre evidenced via 34,000 launch week copies sold. However, the studio had expected that it could have never lived up to some expectations.

In speaking with Joystiq, Starbreeze CEO and president Mikael Nermark stated he has always acknowledged dedicated fans of the series. But, due to its reboot moving away from its strategic history, players were destined to be disappointed:

Syndicate comes with a lot of expectations. Such a great brand, such a great franchise. I don’t think we could’ve ever lived up to some people’s expectations.

Despite its failure to ignite the charts, Nermark wasn’t ‘disappointed’ with Syndicate‘s sales figures:

Sales? What can I say? So many things depend on whether sales are good or not good. And it can always be better, right? You always want it to be better.

Personally, I’ve never been satisfied with any games I’ve worked on. I never play my own games. I was brought into Starbreeze two and a half years ago, and the first year I worked on other things than on production. But what I saw coming out of this long production time, I’m proud of what we did at Starbreeze.

Nermark compares the first-person shooter to “those really high production value, high budget productions”.  The studio’s head honcho did, however, state that if there’s one thing Syndicate has an upper-hand on from its competitors, it’s that the game introduced an innovative feature for the FPS genre – “truly cooperative play.”

The co-op part is fantastic to me I think it’s a lot of fun to play. I think it may be too hard. I’m one of those guys that wants it harder, harder, harder, right? So I think we made it maybe too hard, and we didn’t really … we should’ve thought about the player more. It’s a game made for you to play with your friends, who you really know, ’cause it’s truly a cooperative play, rather than just jump in and play alongside each other.

Syndicate released earlier this year during February. For more on the reboot, head on over to PlayStation LifeStyle’s review.

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