Looking back on this bloodbath of a release window, especially as we enter November, it’s interesting to see which titles emerged victorious and which struggled. Almost everyone expected that Onimusha: Way of the Sword, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Control Resonant would top one million sales each. Few expected Star Wars: Zero Company and perhaps even Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve to end up as big as they did. And among the biggest names, even fewer expected titles like Gears of War: E-Day to reportedly come up short. That you could substitute other names of varying degrees of size and scope is a testament to how packed this season has been.
Yet, one performed even better than our wildest expectations, and if the headline didn’t give it away, it’s S-Game’s Phantom Blade Zero. After launching to very strong critical praise, currently at an 88 Metascore based on 45 reviews, it peaked at nearly 834,000 concurrent players on Steam and became the 14th most-played title on the platform in its history. A quick peek at its rating reveals a 91 percent “Very Positive” score based on 56,383 user reviews at this time.
