Square Enix Says Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Launch Sales 'Undershot' Expectations

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy's launch sales "undershot" Square Enix's initial expectations, the Japanese publisher announced recently in a Q3 financial results briefing.

The statement was made by Square Enix President and Representative Director Yosuke Matsuda on Feb. 4 and has been making the rounds on the internet a bit thanks in part to a newly-released outline of the briefing.

"The HD Games sub-segment launched 'Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy' in Q3," Matsuda said in the briefing. "Despite strong reviews, the game’s sales on launch undershot our initial expectations."

Matsuda went further, however, mentioning that Square Enix will continue to offer sales for The Game Awards Best Narrative 2021 winner as they've led to more promising results.

"However," Matsuda said, "sales initiatives that we kicked off in November 2021 and continued into the new year have resulted in sales growth, and we intend to work to continue to expand sales to make up for the title’s slow start."

Helmed by Square Enix subsidiary, Eidos-Montréal, the third-person, action-adventure game was released for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch (via cloud streaming) and PC (via Square Enix Store, Steam and Epic Games Store) on Oct. 26, 2021, and is based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name.

Players control Peter Quill as he roams the galaxy with the help of his rag-tag team comprised of Gamora, Rocket Racoon, Groot and Drax the Destroyer.

The game is deliberately a single-player experience and includes a total of 16 chapters, which roughly takes 15 to 20 hours to conquer.

Down the line, it doesn't appear that more levels are on the way for the title. As initially announced during E3, Eidos-Montréal said the game won't include DLC or microtransactions.