The tale of exclusivity in the games industry is a complicated one, with a history bogged down in hatred, anti-corporate feelings and controversy. Most modern gamers will know this story quite well, especially if you pay attention to the controversy surrounding Epic and their PC exclusives strategy. But now, another company has been caught up in the backlash whirlwind, this time it’s the excellent PlatinumGames.
I mean I guess I understand, you really wanted to play Astral Chain on the PC or another console, and you don’t have a Switch. And if you’re a PlatinumGames fan whose caught without, you might be mad. But it seems like a really silly reason to negatively impact the positive feedback surrounding the game. If just doesn’t make sense that if you love PlatinumGames that you would lash out against them. And also considering Nintendo supported development, it makes sense that they would want to recoup investment through exclusivity.
But the games industry has been known to do dumb things every once in a while, like lashing out against an inconsequential gender selection in Battletech. Another exclusivity announcement, the move of Psyonix’s Rocket League to the Epic Store, got a similar review-bombing treatment.
Despite this flood of negativity, fans have rallied around the game and the team behind it. Since the game came out on August 30th, the PlatinumGames effort has enjoyed a steady string of supportive comments and reviews in response to the review bomb. And while yes, it’s very likely these reviews aren’t from people who have played the game at all, since it just came out, but it’s important to look at the reviews anyway to get a sense of if the game is good. And it seems like things are looking good. As of now, there are now 667 positive scores and 299 negative scores, giving the game a positive user score on MetaCritic. Critic scores place Astral Chain as a good game, scoring an average of 87.
Astral Chain is out now for the Nintendo Switch, check it out in the gameplay trailer down below.
