In the current gaming market, it’s impossible not to step on yet-another new contender hoping to revolutionize gaming and achieve Fortnite levels of cultural saturation. Success has been hard to come by — even the most unique ideas, such as a wrestling battle royale or dodgeball team shooter, shutter after a year (or oftentimes less) on the market. Being a free-to-play game that relies on constant micro-transactions, consistently growing player counts, and endless updates to keep the game fresh and fun — it’s really no surprise that few games find success.
Developer Behaviour Interactive achieved the rarified status of developing a popular live service game with their asynchronous survival horror game, Dead by Daylight. Having partnered with nearly a dozen horror franchises — Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Scream, Resident Evil, and even Stranger Things — the predator-vs-prey gameplay loop has intoxicated players ever since it launched in 2016. Behaviour Interactive is ready to try again, but the odds are much less certain with their new venture, Meet Your Maker.
You’d be forgiven for not knowing anything about the game; beyond its day and date release announcement within this month’s free PS Plus offerings, very little noise has been made about it by anyone. Rather than a ready-made multiplayer venture like its predecessor, Meet Your Maker tasks players with raiding other players’ bases to get parts to then upgrade their own bases. The gameplay is split between these two modes: the first, an FPS dungeon-crawler where you must avoid traps and enemies while scavenging for items; the second, a base-builder that allows for creative kills, confusing level design, and trap placement devious enough to kill anyone stupid enough to venture into your base.
The gameplay loop of exploring and building seems engaging enough, and the risk-reward of exploring other bases for parts to upgrade your own incentivizes people to participate actively in both facets of the gameplay. (Similar games such as Super Mario Maker 2 failed to adequately tie them together). In fact, this structure seems tailor-made for streamers, who can collaborate with their chat to design intricate murder palaces before repeating difficult bases over and over again to conquer it. Many streamers, smaller ones especially, are attempting to take advantage of the game. Their viewers, however, are not responding.
The numbers between TwitchTracker and SullyGnome — statistics sites aimed at tracking data points (viewer counts, hours watched, etc) for streamers — vary greatly, but they both tell the same story; launch day started off strong, but both viewers and streamers dropped from the game steadily over the next few days. The game appears to speak to smaller streamers, those with a few dozen or fewer average viewers. As the hot new thing, it’s unproven and untested, unable to hold a candle to the mass quantity of known viewers who tune in for League of Legends, Grand Theft Auto V, or Valorant. Even its older brother, Dead by Daylight, far outpaces it.
This could all seem basic — it’s a new game with limited content and a distinct premise, so of course it isn’t immediately popular. But Behaviour knows how to craft a popular game, and Meet Your Maker seems built for streamers more than for general audiences. The developer has been vocal about keeping level expectations, even releasing a post-launch road map detailing smaller updates and its first major expansion, Dreadshore. They’re even partnering with decently-popular streamers to promote the game. So why aren’t people talking about it?
Every reason I can give is just conjecture, but let’s try to compare it with a PS Plus success story, Fall Guys, to see whether we can land on an answer. Meet Your Maker, unlike Fall Guys, had no pre-release hype; although there was a beta test in February, it felt like Meet Your Maker simply appeared one day, and existed fully formed. The gameplay loop might be enjoyable and replayable, but it’s not easily explained, whereas Fall Guys’ “be the last bean standing” approach is instantly comprehensible. Perhaps most damning: Meet Your Maker has no potential for memes. The game’s self-serious post-apocalyptic tone signals it’s for adults but lacks the silliness for the game to spread like wildfire throughout the internet. Fall Guys, with its ragdoll physics, silly sounds, and simplistic designs, was instantly desirable and funny. People aren’t sharing clips of silly stages or hilarious deaths — things that entice others to join in on the fun and download it while it’s still free.
None of this is to say that with continued support, Meet Your Maker can’t become a success — because in many ways, it already is. With decent review scores and a consistent (if small) fan base forming, the game could defy all the odds and become a steady and refreshing presence in a field dominated by Fortnite and League. The chances seem slim, especially since the baked-in community participation is slowly dwindling day by day. It’s possible for the game to grow some legs and stick around, but for now, it exists like the majority of other live service games: in a half-dead, half-alive state. Only time will tell which state persists.