Warhammer 40: Space Marine 2 is another game that has fallen into the trend of artificially delaying game releases unless you pay extra. This is just another way for companies to squeeze money out of players, charging a higher price for a ridiculously expensive version of the game called “early access.” But while it’s a trend I hate, it’s hard to deny that it works, especially when the reviews for a game are very favorable. It’s not quite the highest score on Astro Bot, but an 83 on Opencritic is still solid.
Space Marine 2 just “launched” for those who paid $99.99/£84.99 (physical) or $89.99/£79.99 (digital) for the Gold Edition or higher tier. With the included Season Pass, players were able to don Titus’s armor four days before the game launches for everyone else on September 9.
We don’t know how well the game is doing on consoles, but we’ve seen some delicious PC data on SteamDB, and it appears a lot of people are trying to clean up the Xeno garbage. According to the site, the game is 134,302 Space Marines playing at the same time. At least 134,302 People who paid extra to honor the Emperor early. With numbers like this, it’s no wonder companies are sticking to early access pricing models.
Many of the Emperor’s loyal servants have taken the time to leave reviews. Most people seem to be pleased with the game, giving it a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam, and including this glorious hymn to the Emperor: “I really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HARD RN!” Thank you, Nixidus. You really summed up everything we needed to know.
Of course, not everyone is happy. There have been negative reviews (about 20% as of this writing) that mention performance issues, etc. There have also been complaints that the game installs Epic Games services by default, which is essential for crossplay, but some are concerned about Epic’s business dealings. Could crossplay be optional?
