LawBreakers publisher Nexon has blamed the game’s disastrous fortunes on… PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Nexon’s latest financial results include a whopping $32.6m (£24m) expenses hole – “the majority of which” of which was meant to filled by Cliff Bleszinski’s unloved game.
In the wake of the financials being published, Nexon’s investors understandably wanted answers. Step up Nexon financial exec Shiro Uemura – who blamed PUBG for the failure of its take on the oversaturated hero shooter genre.
“Our results in North America in the third quarter were below our outlook, mainly due to the sales from LawBreakers being below our expectations,” Uemura said.
Exact sales numbers for LawBreakers have not been released, although the game’s peak online player count has dipped to just double figures.
“LawBreakers is a unique FPS developed for core users. We had very high expectations for its launch,” Uemura continued, “however, the timing of its launch turned out to be unfortunate, specifically the blockbuster PC online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds came out right about the same time, making the market environment very tough for first-person shooters in general and for LawBreakers.”