Pushing an established game IP into a new genre with different gameplay mechanics is a great way of appealing to new audiences as part of IP expansion plans. And that’s exactly what Danish indie studio, Ghost Ship Games, has done with Deep Rock Galactic, their phenomenally successful co-op shooter that pits dwarf miners against alien hordes.

In 2024, Ghost Ship Games released Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, a single-player autoshooter modelled on the success of Poncle’s Vampire Survivors. Two years later, and another Deep Rock Galactic game, Rogue Core, has entered Early Access, this time a roguelike spin-off of the franchise.

While Rogue Core has sold an estimated 600k copies after entering Early Access on 20th May, it’s off to a rocky start. One of the challenges of pushing an established IP into a new game genre is that you’ll have players with pre-conceived ideas of what the game should look like, how it should play, and how “true” it is to the main franchise it’s based on.

Player counts for Rogue Core have fallen significantly since the Early Access release, and while Ghost Ship Games is making active updates to the game, there’s still some way to go if the studio wants to win back the players it lost at launch.

With over 650k players in the official Deep Rock Galactic Discord server, we wanted to take a look at what players are saying about the game, what improvements they’d like to see, and what Ghost Ship Games should do next to bring more players into Rogue Core.

To do that, we analysed more than 120k player messages posted in Discord channels related to Rogue Core. Note: we’ve only analysed Discord channels that were created for Rogue Core discussions such as rogue-core-chat, so these figures aren’t indicative of message volumes across the entire Deep Rock Galactic server.

Here’s what we found, along with some lessons for other game studios interested in expanding their IPs into new genres.

Early Access Launch

Rogue Core entered Early Access on 20th May 2026, peaking at 42,716 CCU, according to Steamdb. With the exception of the game’s first patch release on 17th June, CCUs have been on a gradual decline, currently hovering around 1000 at the time of writing.

While it’s not unusual for playercounts to experience a sharp drop-off after launch, this gradual decline lines up with activity in the game’s Discord server and suggests the game isn’t living up to the expectations of players.

According to our analysis of 15,000 messages posted in the first week of the game’s Early Access period, Rogue Core has generated a highly engaged yet polarised response from the Deep Rock Galactic community, indicative of the “mostly positive” reviews on Steam.

The community is divided between players who praise the new direction of the IP and defend its Early Access status, and those who are critical of its differences from the original Deep Rock Galactic.

This level of polarisation is one of the biggest takeaways from the Early Access period and shapes much of the discourse around the launch. Over 200 unique players contributed to this discourse in Discord, with supporters either expressing strong faith in the developers, with quotes like “the game has the same soul as DRG,” while others call it “an insult to the first game” and ask, "why isn’t this more like Deep Rock”

Arguably, Rogue Core is a victim of Ghost Ship Games’ earlier success with Deep Rock Galactic, something the studio even alluded to in the run-up to the game’s launch when they said:

“Heading into our Early Access launch, it’s inevitable that folks will compare Rogue Core against Deep Rock Galactic. We do it too. But it's worth remembering that Deep Rock Galactic has had about ten years more development than Rogue Core”

Ghost Ship Games has built a thriving community around Deep Rock Galactic, which is full of players who want to see the studio succeed. This is something you see a lot with indie devs and publishers (see our analysis of Paralives in the last edition of PlayerOps), so it’s no surprise to see so many longtime players of Deep Rock Galactic advocating that Ghost Ship will address many of the most common complaints about the game.

Early Access releases usually experience technical issues at launch, and this was one of the biggest complaints with Rogue Core.

According to player messages in Discord, these technical issues included:

• Game-breaking and widespread multiplayer connectivity issues resulting in black screens, connection errors and empty server browsers, especially on Steam Deck. These were mentioned by over 200 unique players.

• Technical issues that prevent the game from launching or loading correctly are mentioned by over 80 unique players. Reports include error popups like “Launch ga” or Create Prosses returned 24”

• In-game bugs relating to physics, abilities, and player states that can prematurely end game runs. They were mentioned by over 50 unique players, with specific issues including critical boss objects getting stuck, players becoming unrevivable, rejoining games in weaponless states and abilities not working.

Most of the game’s major technical issues were quickly patched, but another topic of hot debate is comparisons with the original Deep Rock Galactic.

Specific comparisons with Deep Rock Galactic (base game)

While Rogue Core and Deep Rock Galactic are two very different games, we thought it would be interesting to look at comparisons between the two, as this is such a major point of contention amongst players. To do this, we analysed over 4000 messages from players making comparisons between the two games.

Difficulty and pacing - Over 500 messages expressed frustration that Rogue Core is significantly harder and more stressful than DRG. The threat timer and relentless swarms leave little “room to breathe” compared to the original game, although more hardcore players complain the game has become “too easy” after updates [see further down

Weapon balance and feel - Nearly 200 messages focus on how weapons transitioned from Deep Rock Galactic to Rogue Core. Some iconic weapons, like the M1000 (M1K) and the Warthog, are criticised for feeling much weaker, less accurate, or having severe ammo issues in Rogue Core compared to their DRG counterparts.

Rogue Core’s forced cooperation versus the freedom of Deep Rock Galactic - Nearly 100 messages specifically compared the cooperative mechanics, noting that Rogue Core’s shared upgrade system forces players to stick together and coordinate tightly, which can feel overly restrictive and punishing in public lobbies compared to the more flexible cooperation in DRG.

Fear the Cave Leech - Another specific frustration is the sheer density of powerful Cave Leeches in Rogue Core, which deal very high damage. Players note that while Cave Leeches are relatively rare in Deep Rock Galactic, they appear in massive numbers per stage in Rogue Core, leading to constant “chain grabbing” and team wipes.

What players love most about Rogue Core

Despite a rocky launch, players expressed strong positive sentiment regarding several key mechanics, classes, and upgrades that enhance their gameplay experience. We analysed nearly 6000 player messages categorised as ‘praise’ to highlight some of Rogue Core’s most celebrated features and elements.

Class design and unique abilities (over 500 messages)

The most prominent area of praise in the sample focuses on the five playable classes -Spotter, Slicer, Retcon, Falconer, and Guardian - and their highly distinct abilities.

• Spotter: Celebrated as an essential support class, players love the utility of the radar scan and the high-impact guaranteed critical darts that melt bosses.

• Slicer: Praised for unmatched mobility, satisfying melee-focused builds, and the ability to generate massive overkill damage numbers.

• Retcon: Highly favored for solo play and clutch saves, with players loving the “rewind time” mechanic and the aggressive “barbarian” playstyle.

• Falconer: Praised for passive crowd control via the shock drone, chain lightning synergies, and the ability to revive teammates from a safe distance.

• Guardian: Appreciated as a dedicated backline protector, utilising stuns, forcefields, and armor-stacking buffs to keep the team alive.

Challenging gameplay loop and timer tension (over 300 messages)

Players heavily praise the high-stakes, fast-paced nature of Rogue Core, noting that it offers a refreshing contrast to the more relaxed pace of Deep Rock Galactic. The inclusion of a difficulty timer is highly celebrated for forcing teams to actively coordinate, prioritise objectives, and manage risks under pressure. Rather than finding the difficulty frustrating, players report that clutching victories with random teammates or friends provides an immense sense of satisfaction.

Progression adjustments and QOL updates post-launch (over 250 messages)

Ghost Ship Games received substantial praise for their rapid response to player feedback during early access. A recent patch that reduced merit costs for early ascensions, enhancement tree gates, and deployment slots was met with widespread gratitude, as it significantly smoothed out the progression curve.

Players also highlighted several QoL improvements, such as faster default mining speeds, the inclusion of a late-join feature for the first stage of runs, and the implementation of highly versatile traversal tools like the Anti-Grav Emitter and improved ziplines. The addition of a highly-requested auto-sprint feature (Update 1) was also praised by 30 unique players.

Immersive audio, voice acting, and the ascension ceremony (over 100 messages)

Rogue Core’s presentation and atmosphere are major highlights for the community. The game’s prestige/promotion event, The Ascension Ceremony, is praised as a beautiful, cinematic team event that fosters comradery. Players also highly commend the voice acting, particularly the new female dwarf voice actresses, who deliver lines with a perfect blend of humor and grit. The robotic companions, Omega and Cooper, have also become fan favourites due to their quirky humour and double act.

Areas of Rogue Core that need improving

Similar to the above, we analysed over 14,000 player messages posted since the game’s Early Access launch that have been classified by Accord as a ‘complaint’ or ‘frustration’ relating to 14 sub-categories of the game, such as gameplay, balance, economy, and resources. We’ve excluded bugs and technical hurdles from this filter to focus on core mechanics and features.

Polarising difficulty shifts and power creep (over 800 messages)

As a roguelite game, Rogue Core does have a relatively high barrier to entry, but a frequent source of frustration among players centers on the game’s difficulty balance, which has become highly polarised.

A large portion of the community is frustrated that recent updates have made the game far too easy, even on Depth 4 and Reckless settings. They point to massive player power creep, an overabundance of ammo and red sugar, and overpowered upgrades like “Boom! You’re Dead” that allow teams to spawn-camp and vaporise waves instantly.

Conversely, a smaller but vocal group of casual and cooperative players find the game excessively punishing and difficult, especially when playing in duos. This highlights one of the biggest pain points of success with a game franchise as popular as Deep Rock Galactic: you can’t please everyone!

Friction over the upgrade negotiation [shared rewards pool] system (over 500 messages)

Players are heavily frustrated by the mechanics of the upgrade draft system, which uses a shared rewards pool. The removal of the “skip for health” option and the standardisation of upgrade rarities in updates have drawn criticism for reducing strategic choice and making the first picker feel disadvantaged.

The cooperative aspect of the draft frequently breaks down in public lobbies, leading to resentment when teammates greedily snatch upgrades meant for other classes or prematurely trigger upgrades mid-swarm without consulting the team.

Tedious boss mechanics and invisibility frames (over 200 messages)

Boss encounters are another major pain point. Players express frustration with mechanics that disrupt the flow of combat, specifically the introduction of invincibility frames and phase gates that make bosses temporarily immune to damage. Attacks like Ramok’s tornado (mentioned by 20 unique players), Molaktula’s constant spinning and ground spikes, and Gotoorak’s repetitive knockback attacks are criticised for being tedious, hard to avoid, and overly punishing, especially for solo players who have no breathing room to resupply or revive teammates.

Underwhelming class kit for the Guardian (over 50 messages)

The Guardian class is a frequent target of complaints, widely regarded as the weakest and most sluggish class in the game. Players find his abilities, such as the armor beacon and fear aura, to be highly underwhelming due to excessively long cooldowns and a lack of meaningful impact compared to other classes that can easily clear waves. His Protection bio-booster deck is also criticised as being extremely weak and unrewarding, leaving players feeling like they are playing at a severe disadvantage.

A rock in a hard place - what Ghost Ship Games should do next

As Ghost Ship Games continues to update Rogue Core, we wanted to learn more about the specific changes that players want to see. We analysed nearly 1000 messages from the last two weeks that could be identified as feedback or improvements (note: this doesn’t mean they’ve been posted in feedback-specific channels) to get a better idea of what players think Ghost Ship Games should do next.

Of course, one of the biggest challenges facing Ghost Ship Games is the casual vs hardcore split amongst players. While the debate over the game’s difficulty will surely never be settled, the suggestions below could appease some of the game’s more vocal critics.

Better class identity and mobility options

Many players expressed a desire for stronger class identity, noting that the current classes feel too similar. A major point of discussion was the reliance on the “big three” team traversal tools (zipline, drills, and anti-grav emitter). Multiple players (over 40 unique) suggested introducing unique, individual mobility skills for each class to reduce this reliance and enhance skill expression.

Upgrade negotiation and reroll systems

This is something that Ghost Ship Games has already said they’re actively working on in previous update notes, but players frequently discuss the upgrade negotiation system, with many suggesting the addition of a reroll mechanic to mitigate bad RNG. Others proposed features like favouriting multiple options, voting systems for multiplayer lobbies, or allowing players to skip to the back of the queue to let upgrades cycle.

More variety for missions and cave generation

Over 40 unique players demanded more variety in mission objectives and cave layouts to prevent the gameplay loop from feeling repetitive. Players suggested alternatives to the standard elevator defense sequence, such as repairing a damaged elevator, searching for parts, or introducing unique objectives that persist between floors.

Turret balancing for the Retcon class

Retcon’s turrets were a frequent target of balancing discussions. Players noted that the ability to spam numerous turrets can trivialise boss fights and turn the game into an “afk sim” for teammates. Suggestions to balance this included implementing hard caps, adding ammo limits, or introducing setup times.

Hotbar and weapon slot customisation

Several players requested the ability to rearrange weapons and equipment slots on their hotbar. Currently, players feel restricted when they cannot move items to their preferred slots, leading to minor frustration during gameplay.

Takeaways for other game studios on IP expansion

Analysing the player response to Rogue Core and how the game has managed future patches and updates reveals some wider lessons for game studios who might be interested in pushing their IP into new game genres

Comparisons with the base game are unavoidable

You can’t please everyone. As we’ve seen from the polarised response to Rogue Core, there are players who praise the game for staying true to the identity of Deep Rock Galactic, while others say it strays too far. Be mindful that the inclusion of any specific gameplay elements (characters, weapons, locations) will undoubtedly draw comparisons with how they look or feel in the base game.

Be mindful of difficulty and genre compatibility

While the aesthetic and premise of Deep Rock Galactic lend themselves well to a roguelite game, there’s a noticeable difference in difficulty. Roguelite games are notoriously difficult and take a while to pick up due to your character’s weak starting state, whereas Deep Rock Galactic was accessible as it had a decent mix of difficulty levels.

Given how successful the original game is, it’s not surprising that a large number of players find Rogue Core too difficult - especially if they’ve never played a roguelite game before.

Keep players informed and updated

This might seem like an obvious one, but something we see consistently across our analysis of indie games is that studios that keep a strong line of communication with players and act transparently will always receive good favour when things go wrong. Ghost Ship Games has done an excellent job of sharing feedback and responding to players as they update Rogue Core, and maintaining a healthy Discord server and setting up dedicated channels for feedback is an important part of that.

Need help turning your player messages from Discord into actionable insight that can help you ship better games? Get in touch for a free demo.

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This is an impressive feat for the 15-person team, who have been working on the game for around seven years since it was started as a solo project by developer Alex Massé.

Simon Carless has an excellent rundown of the game’s performance in his latest GameDiscoverCo newsletter. The game now has two big competitors in the life sim genre to contend with: EA’s The Sims 4 and Krafton’s inZOI.

Contemplating how Paralives might perform in the future, Simon writes in his latest newsletter:

“Our gut is that Paralives will handle that a tad better than inZOI, one of the only other attempts to rival The Sims recently. (It built a lot of the right framework, and sold great initially, but seems a little less ‘sure’ of what’s fun.) Overall, it’s tricky: players want a new thing, but they already have the giant (and successful!) old thing [The Sims] to return to….”

In our opinion, the success of Paralives will be driven by the changes and improvements that Paralives Studio makes during this Early Access period. If these changes address some of the biggest frustrations levelled at EA by players of The Sims (which they’ve been very vocal about), Paralives could become a game that eventually dethrones The Sims.

Ultimately, its future performance hinges on how much the studio responds to and actions player feedback. If Paralives Studio can deliver a list of features and mechanics that an established playerbase of The Sims players has been craving for and hasn’t yet received, this could be enough to pull them into the shiny new thing and eventually abandon the successful old thing.

As for how those attempts are going so far, we can’t think of a better way to find out than asking the players themselves. To do that, we’ve used Accord to analyse over 100k+ player messages in the thriving Paralives Discord server (121k members).

Here’s what players want to see next, and what Paralives Studio should do next, if they want their game to dethrone The Sims and become the new champion of the life sim genre.

Early Access Launch & Bug Reports

Paralives experienced a highly anticipated but technically turbulent Early Access launch. While players are deeply invested and overwhelmingly positive about the core mechanics and frequently praise its superiority over competitors like The Sims, severe technical issues are testing their patience. Critical bugs including persistent crashes, infinite loading screens, and missing cloud saves are widespread, though the community largely frames these growing pains as an expected part of supporting a beloved indie developer's journey.

This framing is incredibly important, especially as Paralives’ biggest competitor is developed and published by EA, leading to a David vs Goliath perception of the game and studio in comparison to the “mega corp”, EA.

Paralives Studio has spent years cultivating an incredibly passionate and highly engaged community of players who are rooting for its success. Proactive updates (such as six big patches since entering Early Access) and transparent communication have cultivated good faith amongst players, who will stick around as long as they feel their voices are being heard.

In a developer blog post from 29th May, Paralives Studio said it had received “over 150,000 [!] bug and suggestion reports”, and thanked players for helping them to “improve Paralives during Early Access.”

Nevertheless, here are some of the more critical bugs and errors that Accord identified from player messages at launch (note: many of these may have been fixed by now)

• Frequent crashes linked to suspected memory leaks

• A “progression-blocking bug” that locks players into the loading screen

• UI bugs hampering player customisation

• Corrupted save files

• Significant performance issues, even on high-end PCs

• Data-loss due to lack of Steam Cloud saves

• An unreliable auto-save feature leading to lost progress and crashes

• Broken outfit changing mechanics

• Steam workshop and mod loading failures

• Disappearing floors and ceilings in build mode

• Buggy stairs and pathfinding features

• Rotational births and the ‘Charlie’ baby glitch - a bizarre glitch where newborn babies appear with placeholder ‘Charlie’ portraits (depicting bald adult figures) or fail to trigger labor animations correctly

• Infants and toddlers are highly prone to visual and physical glitches

• Highly romantic or married couples frequently lose the ability to perform intimate interactions or “Try for Baby” on beds.

Comparisons with The Sims: How does Paralives fare against its biggest competitor?

The Sims 4 has had no shortage of complaints from players over the years, with many players criticising frequent bugs, an inferior experience in comparison to earlier games, and a heavy focus on monetisation via the introduction of an in-game Marketplace and the “Maker Programme,” which has paywalled content that used to be free.

Paralives Studio has used this controversy to its advantage by announcing that “all future updates and content expansions released for the game will always be completely free for everyone who owns the base game.”

We used Accord to analyse thousands of messages in the Paralives Discord that make direct comparisons with The Sims to find out how the game fares alongside its biggest competitor. Here’s what we found from a sample of 5000 messages where “The Sims” is mentioned in conversations alongside Paralives.

• A significant portion of the community expresses a strong preference for Paralives, often describing it as "the sims but better" or declaring they will never return to EA's franchise.

• One of the primary reasons players prefer Paralives is deep-seated frustration with EA and its monetisation of The Sims 4. Over 200 players criticised EA's "anti-consumer" practices, specifically the high cost of low-quality, disconnected expansion packs that often feel like they should be base-game features. In contrast, players highly appreciate the indie nature of the Paralives development team, noting that they genuinely care about the player experience and have promised free future content updates.

• Over 150 players praised the game’s build mode, highlighting the unprecedented freedom it offers. Key features celebrated by the community include gridless building, the ability to resize and stretch objects (such as curtains, counters, and windows), and the ease of placing clutter to make spaces feel lived-in. Many noted that these tools are far more intuitive and powerful than those in other life simulation games.

• More than 80 different players in the sample expressed deep appreciation for the inclusivity and diversity of the Paramaker (character creation tool). The community celebrated the presence of realistic body sliders (including a belly slider and flat-chest options for female characters), gender-neutral body types, and diverse hair textures. Additionally, players were deeply moved by the inclusion of medical and disability representation, such as hearing aids, wheelchairs, crutches, and top surgery scars.

• Over 50 players praised Paralives for its built-in, non-binary-friendly systems that allow for authentic trans, non-binary, and intersex representation without relying on third-party mods. In The Sims 4, players feel that inclusive features were added as a “corporate afterthought” and remain constrained by a binary coding system (such as non-binary Sims defaulting to infertility or clothing being strictly gender-locked). Paralives' unified body mesh and flexible pregnancy/pronoun settings are seen as a massive step forward.

• Another major point of comparison is the world structure. Players express immense relief at Paralives' lack of loading screens when entering different lots, contrasting it sharply with The Sims 4's restrictive "micro-hoods" and constant loading interruptions. The ability to load lots in real-time and watch NPCs move naturally throughout a living town makes the world feel significantly more cohesive and alive.

What Paralives Studio should do next (according to players)

Now that Paralives is in Early Access, the studio will continue to patch and update the game according to the Paralives Roadmap. The most recent patch for the game (0.1.6) went live on 16th July, so we’ve analysed nearly 2000 player messages posted in the last week (13-20 July) to get a consensus of how players feel about the game since its most recent patch, and what they’re looking foward to seeing next.

General impressions & feature requests

Four days after the release of Paralives Patch 0.1.6, player sentiment remains highly polarised between enthusiastic praise for the game's ongoing features and deep frustration over catastrophic gameplay blockers. While the community is actively leveraging the new vacation mechanics for emergent storytelling and deeply enjoys the developer's quirky communication style, major regressions are severely disrupting play.

Widespread save corruption continues to cost users hours of progress, and a critical new "time inconsistencies" bug is completely halting character aging, skill gains, and narrative progression, forcing many players to temporarily abandon long-term saves until a hotfix is deployed.

Ongoing issues such as these might explain the churn in players on Steam and the decline in Discord activity following the game’s Early Access launch. We suspect that many of the players who checked out Paralives and have since dropped it will return once highly requested features have been implemented.

For those specific features, players are highly focused on the upcoming roadmap. The most anticipated additions are Pets (cats, dogs, horses, and wildlife) and Seasons, which players expect will bring much-needed depth to the world. Additionally, there is strong demand for Farming and Gardening mechanics, Houseboats, and official World-Building/Edit-Town tools to allow players to fully customise their neighborhoods. Improvements to the gender-neutral clothing meshes to prevent clipping on diverse body types are also frequently requested.

Performance & optimisation challenges

While Paralives Studio is proactively working to address any major bugs that pop up during the roadmap, players are still regularly encountering performance and optimisation issues alongside smaller bugs.

Here are some of the most recent issues identified by Accord that need addressing by the studio as a priority, along with suggested workarounds/fixes where appropriate.

Critical Time and Aging Inconsistencies

• Halted Progression: A severe “time inconsistencies” bug is completely freezing core gameplay loops. Players report that their Paras have entirely stopped aging, skill experience bars no longer progress, and character needs are not decaying.

• Contradictory Symptoms: The bug manifests unpredictably across different saves; while some players report their Paras are functionally immortal, others state their characters are aging far too quickly, turning from adults into elders in just two in-game days.

• Forced Workarounds: Players are attempting complex, undesirable workarounds to mitigate the issue, such as turning off aging for non-household townies, which breaks the immersion of the town growing alongside the player’s family.

Storyteller and Wants Progression Broken

• The One-Choice Bug: As a direct consequence of the known time desynchronisation bug, the game’s dynamic narrative systems are failing. Players report receiving only one Story Card choice from the Storyteller instead of the standard three.

• Failed Fixes: Despite patch notes indicating fixes for specific story cards and Wants, the underlying time issue is preventing these systems from functioning properly, severely degrading the gameplay experience for narrative-focused players.

Catastrophic Save File Corruption

• Widespread Data Loss: Players continue to report losing hours of creative playtime because their built lots vanish, saves fail to load past a black screen, or save files completely disappear upon reloading the game.

• Soft Corrupted Households: Following the “Goodbye Charlie” patch fix, players are encountering “soft corrupted” saves where newly created Paras completely disappear from households or the game gets stuck on a loading doodle animation.

• Critical Retention Risk: The volume of corrupted saves is causing immense frustration, forcing users to abandon their current play sessions or resort to complex file-management workarounds.

Inability to “Try for Baby”

• Blocked Reproduction: Several users report a pervasive bug where their partnered Paras simply refuse to execute the “try for baby” interaction.

• Player Workarounds: Due to the blockage, family-oriented players are resorting to adopting children instead, or forcefully creating offspring by using cheats in the paramaker.

Demand to Disable Town Events Due to Lag

• Performance Cost: While players recognize the new change that boosts skill gains during town events, the constant loading required for these events is causing severe performance degradation for some systems.

• Toggle Request: Players are explicitly asking for a feature toggle to turn off town events entirely so they can improve baseline framerates.

Romance Overhaul Yields Mixed Results

• Unwanted Advances: Despite the logic overhaul, the Storyteller continues to generate inappropriate romantic suggestions, such as pushing unwanted crushes between specific family members.

• Sluggish Pacing: Some users find the romantic progression system to be incredibly tedious, noting it takes “several business days” of gameplay to get two Paras together.

• Successful Unblocks: Conversely, some players report that the changes successfully fixed their previously “stuck” relationships, celebrating that the newly tuned romance cards finally allowed their pairs to progress.

Demand to Disable Town Events Due to Lag

• Performance Cost: While players recognise the new change that boosts skill gains during town events, the constant loading required for these events is causing severe performance degradation for some systems.

• Toggle Request: Players are explicitly asking for a feature toggle to turn off town events entirely so they can improve baseline framerates.

Summary

We have no doubt that many of the issues mentioned above will be ironed out by the Paralives team over the coming weeks. The biggest challenge the team faces now is task prioritisation and how they choose to address bugs such as those mentioned above while actively working on the game’s wider development.

If that challenge feels like something your game studio is familiar with, tools like Accord are here to help! Get in touch to book a free demo so you can find out how you can use your Discord server to instantly identify bugs and turn player messages into actionable insight.

Book a free demo

Don’t forget to subscribe to the PlayerOps newsletter on Substack for weekly posts and data-driven articles exploring player feedback and why it matters for studios and community leaders.

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While many people might not have heard of this three-player bomb disposal game prior to Next Fest, BOMBANANA! isn’t a surprise sleeper hit. It entered Next Fest with an impressive 70k wishlists and millions of social media views already behind it, as detailed in a lengthy Reddit post from the studio explaining the game’s marketing strategy.

Impressive stuff. But what’s more impressive is the growth of the BOMBANANA! Discord server, which went from just seven (7!) daily posts the day before its Next Fest demo launch to over 2000 daily posts by the end of June.

This means Lefto Studio experienced 614% growth in Steam wishlists, but a massive 28000% growth in Discord activity.

As a three-player co-op game, embracing this community will be key to the continued success of the game.

With that in mind, we wanted to explore why Discord has become such an important platform for Lefto Studio, how player messages will be a valuable data point for Lefto Studio to grow and improve the game moving forward, and what other studios can learn from this.

Lessons from BOMBANANA’s Discord growth

One of the biggest takeaways from this growth in Discord activity is BOMBANANA’s Discord server didn’t experience an influx in activity relative to the game’s marketing efforts before launching on Steam.

So while the coverage in massive video game publications such as denfaminicogamer (1.4 million X followers) and posts from influencers such as Indie Game Joe converted to Wishlists, they didn’t convert to new Discord members.

This growth only happened once people had started playing the game, which lines up with what Lefto Studio said in their Reddit post when reflecting on the game’s success.

Having a Discord server publicly available and linked in the game’s Steam page (at the top of their social links) means BOMBANANA players had somewhere to go and talk about the game, allowing Lefto Studio to build a solid community of players ahead of its global launch later this year.

More importantly, BOMBANANA’s three-player co-op gameplay mechanics are perfect for Discord voice chat. In the game, players work together to defuse a bomb with limited communication:

• One player is blind - they can touch and interact with the bomb but cannot see colours, read the defusal manual or speak.

• One player is mute - they can see the manual but cannot speak and can only communicate with limited gestures

• One player is deaf - they can see the bomb and speak to the team, but they cannot hear anyone else and have to interpret the mute player’s signals and translate those to the blind player.

Three-player voice chats in Discord (set up by the studio as ‘Monkey Squads’ add an additional layer of communication for players who might need an extra hand figuring out the game’s mechanics, while also helping new players find other people to play with outside of the in-game matchmaking.

How Discord data can be used to prepare for a full launch

Outside of using the Discord server to matchmake with other players, we wanted to get a better idea of what players in the Discord server are actually talking about, and whether these messages can help Lefto Studio improve the game ahead of its PC launch in August this year.

We used the ‘Studies’ tool in Accord to help us analyse over 13,000 messages relating to the game and filter them into action points for the studio.

While Lefto Studio has dedicated channels within the game’s Discord server for players to share feedback and report bugs, our research consistently finds that some of the most important messages and bug IDs are posted in non-specific channels such as #general, or in this case, the #chat-English channel (as all of the text-based channels in the Discord server are split into different languages for communication purposes).

Critical bugs and connectivity issues

Important note: Any bugs we highlight in the following sections may have been actioned since they were posted in June - we’re just showcasing the level of insight that game studios can instantly get from players in their Discord server.

Analysis of player messages posted during the demo period identified several bugs, including:

• Widespread ‘Play’ Button Failures: A critical bug rendered the main menu’s ‘Play’ button completely unresponsive for many users. Community moderators frequently step in to suggest disabling or uninstalling background VPN software as a fix.

• Game Freezes: A significant number of players (over 45 unique reports in the sample) report the demo freezing completely in the main menu just moments after launch, requiring the deletion of local AppData to resolve. One player specifically noted persistent freezing while playing on Ubuntu.

• Broken Lobby Transitions: Multiple players (over 20 unique reports in the sample) report that the Steam invitation system is broken. When players attempt to invite friends or join lobbies, the invite button either does nothing, or the invited players fail to appear in the same room

• In-Game Voice Chat and Microphone Malfunctions: Several players (at least 30 unique reports in the sample) report issues with the in-game microphone and voice chat system. Players state that their microphones are “bugging,” their voices are not getting through to teammates, or they are unable to hear others. Additionally, players note a lack of static and echo cancellation, causing audio feedback issues during gameplay. This highlights another benefit of the Discord voice group chats.

• False VPN and Connection Errors: Players have encountered connection errors that falsely accuse them of running a VPN. The game prompts them to close any active VPNs to proceed, even when they do not have any VPN software running.

Top priorities to address before the game’s launch according to player messages

Accord analyses thousands of player messages and creates action points for game studios according to their severity, which is based on message frequency.

These action points are classified as critical, high, medium, or low. This helps studios to understand which areas of focus should be their priority, which can be particularly useful if you have a short turnaround time between demo launch and going to market.

Players Request Lobby Codes and Public Matchmaking to Bypass Friend Invites (Critical)

Steam’s restrictive friend invite system was the biggest point of complaint according to player messages in Discord, as players can currently only matchmake by inviting friends on Steam. Matchmaking is an essential part of the game’s mechanics, but Steam’s policy requires a $5 spend to send new friend invites, which effectively gates the demo’s free-to-play features behind a paywall.

This issue directly undermines the goal of attracting new players with a free trial, which might explain the growth in Discord activity. Thankfully, the studio had the foresight to set up voice chat groups in Discord, which definitely would have helped mitigate some of these issues.

Game Freezes & Broken Play Buttons (Critical)

The game freezes we mentioned further up were identified as another critical issue, as they were so persistent. Suggested fixes involving the deletion of local app data worked for some users but not all. The broken play button issue also meant the demo was completely unplayable for some players, with many players reporting that basic troubleshooting, like restarting and reinstalling, did not address the issue.

Players Report Confusion Over Core Gameplay Manual (Medium)

Some players express confusion when trying to understand core gameplay mechanics, specifically the in-game manual. While players are still engaged enough with the game itself and the community to ask for help, this confusion does represent a potential friction point in the new player experience that could be improved with more guidance. That said, an established Discord server such as this with an engaged community should do most of the lifting here, and it’s not unusual for some players to experience confusion when picking up a new game for the first time (especially one such as this!)

What Lefto Studio should do next

BOMBANANA! is off to a great start, and Lefto Studio is likely already hard at work to address the significant bugs, such as the game freezes and broken play buttons we mentioned above.

The biggest area of focus for Lefto Studio should be on the matchmaking elements of the game. While they won’t have to worry about Steam’s $5 minimum spend policy to send friend invites for the game’s full launch, wider technical bugs still prevented parties from forming correctly, sometimes causing players to enter games solo even after successfully joining a party.

According to player messages in Discord, the biggest request from players is for Lefto Studio to bypass the current friend system and do the following:

• Introduce alternative matchmaking options like lobby codes and a public lobby system to let players enter games more easily.

If Lefto Studio is unable to do this in time for the game’s launch, they can mitigate some of the challenges around Steam’s current matchmaking system by encouraging more players to join the Discord server, which is a win-win for the studio anyway!

As their Discord server grows, the only other thing they may want to consider is more active moderation of the voice-based channels in non-English languages that aren’t native to the game’s studio.

Voice-based channels are much more difficult to moderate than text-based channels in Discord, and as the game and its community grow, Lefto Studio will want to ensure its Discord server continues to remain a safe and welcome space for players from all over the world.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on BOMBANANA’s server growth as the game prepares for its global launch. As our data shows, Discord is arguably the most important social platform for Lefto Studio, given the game’s focus on multiplayer and community building.

Keeping on top of player data can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. If you need a hand, Accord is here to help.

Get in touch with us to book a demo and find out how you can use data in your Discord server to build better games.

Book a free demo

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As always, publications such as The GameDiscoverCo newsletter and the Alinea Insight newsletter have done an excellent job of covering the “biggest winners” by analysing wishlist growth and conversions into purchases.

But wanted to approach Steam Next Fest from a different angle by asking two important questions that we haven’t seen discussed:

• Does a successful demo launch during Steam Next Fest cause a rise in Discord activity?

• Are game studios doing enough to analyse these messages from new players to improve future iterations of their games?

To find out, we analysed a selection of Discord servers for games featured in Steam’s top-50 most popular demos from the June 2026 Next Fest.

Here’s what we found:

Only 2 of the top-50 Next Fest demos don’t have Discord servers

Smaller studios place much greater importance on Discord as a social platform, as only two of the top-50 most popular June Next Fest 2026 demos didn’t have a Discord server: Echoes of Aincrad (published by Bandai, who don’t engage much with Discord) and IGTAP: an Incremental Game That’s Also a Platformer.

Most games pushed Discord as the primary social platform within the social links on the game’s Steam page, showing the level of importance they place on it over other social media platforms.

This is in stark contrast to the wider PC/console gaming space, where many of the biggest game franchises don’t have dedicated Discord servers and are nested under the developer or publisher instead. Often, this limits opportunities for in-depth discussions around games, causing fans to create their own community servers (Overwatch is a good example of this).

Popular Next Fest games saw Discord activity grow by 1600% in 48 hours

In general, the majority of the top-50 most popular Next Fest demos saw a significant increase in new members and activity within their Discord servers.

• Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator saw a 312% increase in Discord messages after launching

• EMPULSE saw a 401% increase in Discord messages after launching

• Mistfall Hunter saw a 1309% increase in Discord messages after launching

• Dust Front saw a 1613% increase in Discord messages after launching

This shows that popular Next Fest demos convert players into joining a game’s community (Discord server), although the growth rates of message activity depend on some important factors:

• Whether the game has launched a demo before and already has a well-established Discord server

• The discoverability of the game’s Discord server. Studios that frequently shared Discord links on Reddit and other platforms with a high domain authority made them easier to find on Google. This had a massive impact on member numbers.

• Whether the Discord server is dedicated to one game or nested within a wider Discord server for the developer or publisher.

How players use Discord servers during Next Fest

Community managers might view Discord servers as an important platform for game studios to build stronger social links with their players. Studio leaders should view Discord as a gigantic player feedback platform, where messages from players can be used to quickly identify bugs and make QOL improvements to your game - without having to conduct expensive player surveys.

As Discord is already such a popular platform with so many players around the world, it’s often the primary platform of choice for players to report bugs and share feedback - especially as they often want to see how their experience of a game compares with other players.

Accord’s ‘Studies’ tool allows game developers to get a comprehensive overview of player messages posted during important periods, such as a new demo launch or season update.

Accord does this by creating ‘Insights’ for five key areas, generating three insights for each of the following areas according to message frequency:

• Sentiment analysis

• Bugs & issues

• Feature requests

• Complaints & frustration

• Hype & excitement

Of course, Accord can be used to dive much deeper into specific areas such as bugs and issues, but the Insights tool is a great way of getting a quick overview of an event such as Next Fest in less than 30 minutes.

We can use this to find out what the most popular talking points were during the first week of Iron Turret’s June 2026 Next Fest demo:

Bugs & Issues

• Numerous players reported that the game stalls and completely fails to load the main menu, requiring them to force-quit the application. Several users identified alt-tabbing as a consistent trigger for game-breaking freezes and crashes

• A frequently reported bug involves the game continuing to run in the background after players exit, forcing users to completely shut down Steam via Task Manager to stop it.

• Specific bugs include faulty projectile physics and mission progression stalls

Feature Requests

• Overwhelming player demand for multiplayer, and particularly co-op, where multiple players could man a single nest.

• Players request strategic mobility for the Iron Nest. The Nest can actually be moved, so this suggests that better instructions are needed

• Players desire deeper progression via turret upgrades, such as more power or improved/faster performance

Staying on top of bug reporting and player feedback

Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator is developed by a two-person team. As the second-most-popular demo of Next Fest, the studio found itself overwhelmed by the number of player reports that were being manually submitted.

This issue was amplified as the Discord server didn’t have a dedicated channel for bug reporting, leading to a significant increase in manual reports.

While manual reports allow players to submit game log files to aid fixes, studios should remember that Discord will be the primary platform of choice for many players to report bugs, and that Discord can always be used to quickly ID bugs before they become a major issue - especially with tools such as Accord.

The big question: can Discord be used to measure sales conversions?

Wishlist adds are no guarantee that players will pick up your game at launch. And while it’s possible to measure the conversion rates of Wishlists, we wanted to find out if Discord could be used to measure purchase intent in the absence of a pre-order button (which is the case for Iron Nest).

According to our analysis, the Next Fest demo for Iron Nest was highly effective at creating an emotional connection with players, many of whom stated their intent to directly purchase the game.

Next Fest and the importance of Discord servers

If players hear about your game during Next Fest and enjoy it, many of them will seek out a Discord server to join.

If they join, you’ve pulled them into your community. If you’re lucky, they’ll stick around and chat to other players.

If you’re really lucky, they’ll make friends with other players and become an important part of your game’s community, sharing valuable feedback to help you improve the game in the future.

And if you’re really, really lucky, they’ll lock in that day one purchase the moment your pre-orders go live because they’ve formed an emotional connection with your game and want to see you thrive as a studio.

Discord is a massively important tool and platform for two main reasons:

• You give players a reason to stick around and join a community, lowering the risk of them simply moving on to the next big game that catches their attention.

• As players share feedback on the latest builds and demos, you can use this data as a game studio to improve future iterations of the game.

Specialist tools like Accord allow studios to automate this process so you can spend less time trying to capture and analyse player feedback and more time implementing it.

If you need a hand doing that, get in touch with us at contact@accord.gg

Don’t forget to subscribe to the PlayerOps newsletter on Substack for weekly posts and data-driven articles exploring player feedback and why it matters for studios and community leaders.

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Custom-built games used to be one of the most popular choices amongst brands to reach these audiences. But they’re expensive to make, and there’s no guarantee that the investment into building them will pay off – especially with so many major branded games already dominating this space.

That’s why a growing number of brands are focusing their attention on branded integrations instead, where their IP is integrated into existing (and usually very popular) games on the platform in limited-time events. The mechanics of these events can vary significantly from game to game, but they might introduce new characters, items, UGC, game modes, or mini-games based on the brand’s IP.

These integrations have become so popular amongst brands that Roblox has launched Roblox Brand Link, a dedicated matchmaking tool for game developers and IP holders. But while integrations are cheaper and less time-intensive than building a game from scratch, they face two major challenges:

• How do you integrate branded content into a popular game without disrupting the player experience?

• How do players feel about branded integrations?

To find out, we thought it would be interesting to team up with Stephen Dypiangco at Max Power Gaming and analyse Discord messages relating to six major brand integrations in popular Roblox games:

• Brookhaven & LEGO

• Dress to Impress & KATSEYE

• Driving Empire & NASCAR

• Basketball Zero & Luka Dončić

• Welcome to Bloxburg & IKEA

• Evade & Stranger Things: Tales from 85

Methodology

Collectively, the official Discord servers for these six games have over two million members.

We analysed more than 100,000 player messages from the official Discord servers for the games mentioned above, with our analysis taking place during the duration of the events, and a week before they started to catch announcement messages.

Using Accord’s Research tool, we created new studies for each of the integrations above. By feeding Accord a detailed description of the event along with date ranges, we eliminate any player messages that aren’t related to these integrations. To gather extra data, we also ran searches for brand mentions and specific keywords across entire Discord servers.

Why Discord is an important tool for Roblox developers

73% of the top-100 Roblox games have Discord servers, where players will regularly discuss game updates and share their feedback on IP integrations. Member counts are typically between five and six figures, although some Roblox games such as Steal a Brainrot (8 million), Grow a Garden (5 million) and Blox Fruits (3 million) have more members than even the biggest PC/console games.

While some studios will set up dedicated channels for player feedback, our research consistently finds that some of the most valuable player conversations take place in general-chat channels, which are much harder to monitor due to their high message volumes.

We wanted to find out if these messages contain valuable insight that Roblox studios can utilise to build better IP integrations in the future (spoiler: they do).

Here’s what we found, along with our top tips on how Roblox developers can use player feedback in Discord to build better experiences for their players.

1. Players constantly tell developers how to improve collaborations

Players can be quick to criticize and slow to praise, but our research found that they consistently provide useful feedback in the form of feature ideas, reward structures, balancing suggestions, and even event concepts to improve on areas they weren’t keen on. We found over 1000 messages across the six integrations that were requests or suggestions.

• Brookhaven’s players suggested more “lore-connected events” to contextualise brand integrations. Others wanted to see the LEGO firehouse, which was added as part of the event, become a permanent location.

• Basketball Zero contains gacha (lucky spin) mechanics to unlock characters, and Luka Dončić was incredibly rare to obtain. Players requested a guaranteed pity system for future collaborations so they would automatically receive characters after a certain number of pulls.

• Dress to Impress players requested additional and higher-quality cosmetic sets for future music collaborations. They also suggested more licensed tracks in gameplay areas and standalone events to avoid clashes with wider season updates running at the same time.

• Driving Empire players asked for better vehicle balancing and the return of a popular Red Bull livery, which was removed from the game with this update.

• Welcome to Bloxburg players were frustrated by the inability to recolour the IKEA furniture pieces and requested more customisation options for similar collaborations in the future.

• Evade players requested clearer and more reliable quest tracking in future updates so they could accurately guage process for specific unlockables.

KPIs tell you:

• How many people played

• How long they stayed

• What they unlocked

Discord tells you:

• Whether the collaboration felt authentic

• Whether rewards felt fair

• Whether players understood the event

• Whether the IP was integrated smoothly

• Whether branded events are a good match for your game and players

2. Discord feedback exposes a gap between “engagement” and “satisfaction”

One of the biggest challenges surrounding branded integrations is how to measure success. Metrics such as daily visits, engagement time/session length, and brand impressions can be useful KPIs, but these don’t always tell us whether players have had a positive or negative experience with an in-game branded experience.

As Stephen highlights in his write-up from a brand perspective, “no two integrations perform the same way, even in games with identical traffic. A brand like Netflix could show up in two different games, each getting five million visits, and see completely different results depending on how the integration was executed.”

When we analysed these six integrations, we found the collaborations that generated a lot of discussions also generated a lot of criticism, highlighting that big numbers don’t automatically equate to success.

That’s not to say these collaborations weren’t successful. As an example, the KATSEYE collaboration in Dress to Impress boosted player visits by 170% at launch, but several players called it “underwhelming” or “mid” in comparison to other music collaborations in the game.

Similarly, the Luka Dončić integration in Basketball Zero generated tens of thousands of messages from players, but player sentiment was significantly worsened by bugs and how difficult Luka was to obtain as a character.

Without proper Discord and community analysis, developers and IP holders risk concluding that high participation and retention mean the integration was a success.

3. Players care more about how the brand is integrated rather than the brand Itself

Evade’s collaboration with Stranger Things: Tales from 85 was the studio’s second collaboration with a film/TV IP. This integration ran alongside the launch of a new TV season and drove a lot of excitement from players, but discussions around the IP quickly became dominated by bugged rewards and unclear quest requirements.

Similarly, Welcome to Bloxburg’s collaboration with IKEA was praised for being the right brand fit. It’s a lifestyle/simulation game, so a collaboration with a furniture brand makes perfect sense. The brand wasn’t the problem. As some of the rewards were only available to players in Sweden and Australia, player criticism centred on region locking, inventory issues, and limited furniture customisation.

A great brand integration can still produce negative sentiment if the mechanics feel unfair, confusing, or buggy. For developers, this highlights the importance of stress-testing experiences and giving yourself enough development time in the run-up to launching branded integrations.

4. Roblox players don’t hate branded collaborations if they feel authentic “the right fit”

Building on the point above, this is one of the most consistent findings from our analysis.

IP integrations that felt like a “natural fit” were praised by players, while those that felt like a mismatch aesthetically or thematically generated more negative messages from players.

Brookhaven’s collaboration with LEGO introduced new gameplay mechanics where players could roleplay as firefighters and put out various fires across the city. While some players praised the inclusion of LEGO and even set up dedicated LEGO roleplay groups in Discord, others said the LEGO collaboration feels out of place and would prefer events that are more integrated with the game’s lore.

For KATSEYE’s collaboration in Dress to Impress, approximately 145 players shared their opinions on the overall quality of the collaboration. While some expressed excitement, a large volume of feedback was critical, describing the update as “underwhelming” or “mid” compared to previous events like Lady Gaga or Charli xcx. A recurring complaint was that the KATSEYE collab overshadowed the “Trip to Tokyo” update, and it was confusing having a K-pop event run alongside a larger Japanese-themed seasonal update.

Despite some frustrations (such as the removal of a popular livery) Driving Empire’s NASCAR collaboration garnered a highly positive response from players due to its “natural fit” - a car brand in a racing game. It launched alongside the IRL Daytona 500 Race, significantly boosting player excitement while prompting large-scale community activities such as a 100-player NASCAR race

Discord data shows that players judge collaborations through the lens of game identity.

A brand fit that looks sensible in a pitch deck may feel completely wrong to players living inside the game world every day.

5. Roblox players often struggle to understand event mechanics - studios should improve communications

Player criticism isn’t always directed at the collaboration itself. Our analysis consistently found evidence of players being confused about event mechanics, what rewards they could get, whether something was bugged, or what they were supposed to do.

Often, this is the result of poor in-game prompting or a lack of specific information on game pages. And as most of these IP integrations are only written up by specialist Roblox or brand newsletters, there’s a general lack of visibility when it comes to event information and what players should do – especially while these events are taking place.

The strongest example is probably Evade x Stranger Things. Players were told to watch an episode of the TV series but weren’t told how long the episode lasts or how long they should watch for. This caused confusion about what counted as completing the event quest. Community members ended up having to explain rules that the game itself never clearly communicated.

Similarly, the low drop rate for Luka Dončić in Basketball Zero made many players wrongly assume that unlocking the character was bugged and couldn’t be done, while Welcome to Bloxburg’s IKEA collaboration caused confusion and disappointment due to region-locked content for a global game.

Tips for building better IP integrations in Roblox

If you’re a Roblox developer considering integrating an IP for a limited-time event, here are some best practice lessons to avoid upsetting players and help you find the right brand match.

Make the collaboration feel native to the game

Don’t start with “which brand can we partner with?” Instead, ask yourself what type of brand could naturally exist inside your game and feel like an extension of your game world.

Over-explain event mechanics and rewards

Assume players will skip instructions. Explain key mechanics and unlocks in-game, on event pages, in Discord, on Reddit and in FAQ posts. If hundreds of players are asking the same question in Discord, you haven’t communicated clearly enough.

Design rewards that feel unique, not interchangeable

One recurring complaint was that rewards felt too similar to content players already owned. While it makes commercial sense to reuse and repurpose existing assets and mechanics, make players feel rewarded for taking part in an experience.

Create hype before launch, not just during the event

Some of the most successful integrations generated excitement weeks before release. Build hype through speculation, phase announcements and launch teasers to build excitement.

Use Discord as a live feedback system, not a post-mortem tool

Whether it’s criticism or praise, Discord will be the primary platform for most players to share feedback with other players, especially if it will help them quickly diagnose a potential issue.

Don’t wait until the event ends to analyse feedback. Monitor Discord daily to identify and action feedback before it becomes a problem.

If you need a tool to help you do that, Accord can help! Get in touch with us at contact@accord.gg

Don’t forget to subscribe to the PlayerOps newsletter on Substack for weekly posts and data-driven articles exploring player feedback and why it matters for studios and community leaders.

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That said, this announcement shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. New Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, believes exclusive games and software will be a key part of the company’s strategy moving forward, previously telling reporters at a Bloomberg tech event, “To succeed as a platform, we must offer exclusive content and services, and we’re looking at that very closely.”

But make no mistake: this is a very big deal. Gears of War is one of Xbox’s biggest franchises, and players are already wondering what this means for the likes of other major Xbox IPs such as Halo and Fable. For the time being, Xbox CCO Matt Booty has said exclusivity will be decided on a “case-by-case basis.” But that doesn’t mean much to players.

This lack of clarity means the video game industry is currently engaged in hot debate regarding Xbox’s exclusivity strategy. Some players are concerned about the financial and wider marketing implications of locking major franchises to Xbox and PC. Others believe this is a return-to-form for the Xbox brand that will help build brand loyalty and win back lapsed Xbox players.

Like most topics in games, everyone has an opinion. But what do Xbox players really think about the company’s decision to bring back exclusives?

We’ve taken a data-driven approach to the debate by analysing real messages from players in Xbox’s official Discord server.

Xbox’s Discord server has nearly 150,000 members, but a lot of these aren’t active. On average, around 2k messages are posted by players every day, indicated by the dotted line in the image above (the black line is messages that have been processed and filtered, and the grid below is messages that can be categorised). As you’d expect, the day of the showcase (7 June) generated the most messages from players.

To make sure our data is accurate and we’re analysing the right conversations, we’ve conducted our research between the 6th and 10th June.

Here’s what we found:

Exclusivity Identified as the No.1 Trending Topic in Xbox’s Discord Server

We knew this would be a hot talking point amongst players as Accord automatically identified exclusivity as a Trending Insight. This tool allows developers and publishers to quickly identify trending conversations in Discord according to their message frequency. In this case, Accord identified players were debating over console exclusivity.

Great, because that’s exactly what we want to look at!

As Accord summarises:

“Players express significant division regarding console exclusives, with a majority viewing them as detrimental to the gaming experience and inconsistent with the Xbox ecosystem’s multi-platform approach. This sentiment is particularly strong concerning first-party titles also available on PC or Game Pass, and third-party exclusive deals.”

But we want to dive deeper into the data. To do that, we looked at where these conversations were taking place: #general-chat

The Xbox Discord server is surprisingly basic when it comes to channel selection. There are three main channels: general-chat, xbox-game-studios, third-party-games, and a forum to discuss specific games, but this is clunky and not being used too much.

As such, a lot of the main chatter takes place in general. And knowing this is where the exclusivity debate is currently happening, we can do a full scrape of the general chat channel across the dates we want to analyse.

This brings up 13,194 messages to come through. Here’s what we found:

General Sentiment on Xbox Exclusivity

Players are deeply divided on the shift back toward console exclusivity. While some see it as a necessary move to strengthen the Xbox brand, others view it as a regression for the gaming industry. There is a clear tension between those who want to see ‘the three pillars’ (Halo, Gears, and Forza) remain exclusive to define the platform and those who believe the industry was moving toward a more open, multiplatform future.

Over 100 messages spanned a deep debate over whether exclusives are beneficial for the gaming industry or an “outdated business model,” between two different groups.

One group of players argued that exclusives are necessary to incentivise hardware innovation and provide a unique ecosystem. The other group contends that “gatekeeping” titles “hurts” the community and limits the potential audience for developers. Some players specifically noted that while they dislike the practice, they see it as a necessary “quid pro quo” in response to Sony’s strategy.

Major IPs such as Halo, Gears, and Forza are also a major point of contention, as there’s a lot of uncertainty around which IPs might receive exclusivity tags moving forward.

• Gears of War: E-Day & Clockwork Revolution: Generally accepted as confirmed exclusives, though some players hope for eventual PlayStation ports. In contrast to Halo and Forza, Gears of War: E-Day is currently viewed by players as a definitive Xbox console exclusive. Discussion across 30 unique messages shows that this exclusivity is a primary driver for some players to choose Xbox hardware. However, a few users argue that multiplayer-heavy titles like Gears would benefit from the larger player base found on multiplatform releases, even if they are comfortable with single-player titles remaining exclusive.

• The Elder Scrolls and Fallout: Bethesda is owned by Microsoft, so what does that mean for Bethesda franchises such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls? For Elder Scrolls, the prevailing sentiment among vocal players is that full exclusivity may be unwise, arguing that the sheer size of the Skyrim fanbase makes a multiplatform release more logical. Others suggest that Starfield's performance as an exclusive serves as a cautionary tale. While Fallout 3 remasters and Fallout 76 were mentioned, there was less direct debate on Fallout 5 exclusivity compared to TES6, though it falls under the general “future games” category where players expect case-by-case decisions.

• Halo: While some players are excited that friends on other consoles will finally get to play the iconic series, others remain skeptical or find the shift difficult to process. There is a subset of the community that believes that while remakes can go multiplatform, the “next proper Halo” should remain a core Xbox exclusive to maintain brand identity.

• Forza: The general sentiment suggests that making the series multiplatform is a logical move because of the high licensing costs associated with car manufacturers and music.

Game Types Matter with Exclusivity

A significant nuance in the debate is the distinction between game types. Several players expressed that they are “fine” with single-player narrative games being exclusive, but feel that multiplayer-focused titles should be cross-platform to ensure a healthy player population and community reach.

Analysis of chat logs suggests that players are generally more accepting of single-player titles as console exclusives. Titles like Fable (mentioned in ~36 messages) and Clockwork Revolution (mentioned in ~20 messages) are frequently cited as strong candidates for exclusivity because they are narrative-driven and do not rely on a large concurrent player base to remain viable.

Conversely, there is a notable sentiment that multiplayer-heavy franchises, such as Gears of War (mentioned in ~60 messages) and Halo (mentioned in 53~messages), are less suited for exclusivity. Players argue that multiplayer games require the largest possible audience to maintain healthy matchmaking and longevity. Some users explicitly state that while they accept single-player exclusivity, multiplayer titles should be multiplatform to ensure a robust player count.

Confusion Over PC Exclusivity and Console Exclusivity

Messages from 50 different players highlighted significant confusion regarding the terminology used during the showcase. Players frequently questioned why games are labeled “Xbox Console Exclusive” when they are also launching on PC via Steam or the Windows Store.

This led to a recurring discussion pattern where veteran community members explained that “console exclusive” specifically means the game will not appear on competing consoles like PlayStation or Switch, rather than being restricted solely to one piece of hardware.

Or as PC Gamer summarises, following some comments from Xbox’s Matt Booty: “this is less about ‘this is on Xbox,’ and more about ‘this isn’t on PlayStation!’”

What Xbox Should Do Next With Exclusivity (According to Players)

Based on the feedback from players in the messages above, here’s what we think Xbox’s strategy for exclusives should look like moving forward:

1. Multiplatform Expansion for Multiplayer and Live Service Games

The majority of players have expressed a strong desire for multiplayer titles to have the largest possible audience to ensure healthy matchmaking and community longevity. Xbox should commit to a multiplatform release for all major multiplayer-focused titles, ensuring no fan gets left behind while leveraging the cross-play capabilities Xbox fans already praise. Popular multiplayer/live-service games will also generate a lot of revenue for Xbox through in-game purchases.

2. Hard Exclusivity for ‘Identity’ Pillars and New IPs

So which games should remain Xbox exclusives? There is significant praise for the ‘Xbox is back’ sentiment following the announcement of exclusive titles like Gears E-Day and Clockwork Revolution. To drive hardware sales and brand loyalty, Xbox should maintain hard exclusivity for new IPs and core narrative reboots that define the ‘Xbox feel.’ This rewards loyal console owners and creates a clear reason to enter the ecosystem for others. Some players suggest that releasing remakes of legacy Xbox games (such as Halo) on other platforms could serve as a “sample” to entice PlayStation players to buy an Xbox for future entries.

3. Timed Exclusivity for Massive RPGs

For titles with massive, multi-generational fanbases like The Elder Scrolls VI, Xbox should utilise timed exclusivity. This allows Xbox to market the game as 'Best on Xbox' and 'First on Xbox' while eventually capturing the broader market revenue, balancing the 'frustration' of permanent exclusivity with the business need for reach.

4. Communication: Eliminating the ‘Mixed Rumors’

Players are confused regarding whcih games are coming to PlayStation or Nintendo. Apparently, so is Xbox’s Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball. Speaking on The Game Business he said: “We have to communicate that internally. We have to communicate that to our partners, but then most of all, at the end of the day, the average player… That's where we're going. We're just not ready to do it yet."

Xbox needs to move away from 'case-by-case' ambiguity and provide a clear roadmap. Players are currently relying on 'mixed rumors' and 'mixed sources,' which leads to hesitation in hardware investment.

If you want to learn more about how you can use Accord to analyse tens of thousands of messages from your game or studio’s Discord server, get in touch.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the PlayerOps newsletter on Substack for more deep dives exploring player sentiment and community management.

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Studios that focus on building their communities and fostering player loyalty in Discord can see a direct impact on session lengths and retention for their titles. PC players spend a median of six times longer playing when at least one friend is present on Discord, and eight times longer when at least three friends are present. As the social networks of new Discord members grow, so do their session times in your game.

But managing and growing a Discord server isn’t easy. As your community grows, so does the volume of player messages. Monitoring player feedback becomes more challenging, and for studios with limited resources, analysing that feedback and using it to shape future updates can seem like an impossible task. Dedicated channels for player feedback and bug reporting can help, but sometimes the most valuable feedback is hidden in everyday conversations.

Knowing how important all of this is to driving game growth, we’ve taken a deeper look at four games in different stages of their development journey to see how they’re communicating with players, how those methods of communication impact their players’ perception of the studio, and whether all of this can shape the success of a game or a new update. Analysis of all games took place 26 Feb–26 March.

Far Far West

• 2-4 player co-op cowboy shooter developed by Evil Raptor

• Pre-release at the time of analysis

• 47k Discord members | 40k+ messages last 30 days (26 Feb–26 Mar)

When we finished our analysis of Far Far West at the end of March, there were 37k members in its Discord server. That’s now jumped to 47k in just over a month as the game has hit early Access, highlighting the popularity of Discord as part of a game’s journey from pre-release to Early Access.

When you join the Discord server, the onboarding process is fairly straightforward. New members can customise which notifications they receive (events, upcoming playtests, polls, and developer updates). After agreeing to the server rules, players must read through a get-started guide that encourages them to check out the FAQs, introduce themselves, and review the latest announcements. This onboarding process helps reduce churn by making sure players know how to communicate in the server.

Players want to chat about bugs as well as report them

The developers share weekly updates in a dedicated dev-updates channel, and there are dedicated channels for sharing screenshots, clips, and fan art alongside channels for bug fixes and feedback. Channels for feedback and ideas are structured as forum chats, but this format doesn’t lend itself well to chatty discussions, resulting in players posting feedback and ideas in the general channel. Similarly, the bugs channel only links to an external reporting template, which could be a potential barrier that limits the number of bugs being reported.

To find out if this was a case, we analysed over 20k player messages posted during the last demo window (22 February–2 March). Nearly 25% of these messages were categorised as a ‘complaint’ or ‘issue’, with players frequently discussing bugs and technical issues in the general chat rather than using formal reporting channels. These discussions often take the form of troubleshooting requests or casual observations of “glitches.” Many users seem to use the general chat as a first-line diagnostic tool to determine if an issue is a known bug or a personal technical failure.

Using Accord, we ran a feature request report on 6000 player messages posted in the general chat in March. 9% of these messages were specific requests for features. This showcases how channels intended for general social chat are being used by players to request specific features for the game, highlighting the importance of regularly monitoring all channels rather than those dedicated to feedback. You can find some examples of suggested features below:

• Better synergies between spellcasting elements, specifically for Cactus and Voodoo types.

• Faster XP gain for secondary weapons

• “Wackier” projectile-based primary weapons

• More punishing enemies for high-mobility builds

• Steam achievements and exclusive cosmetics, such as prestige horse skins

• Standard UI colours and better accessibility options for visually impaired players

General analysis of Far Far West’s community management in Discord

The Discord server has fostered a loyal community that extends beyond the game itself. Players praise the transparency and accessibility of the development team and mods, while noting that the direct interaction from the staff is far beyond what is typical for indie projects. Interestingly, there’s a strong crossover in the community with players from the Deep Rock Galactic and Ultrakill servers, presumably due to the comedic elements of the game.

Better signposting for providing feedback and bug reports could improve the quality and frequency of formal feedback provision and bug reports while alleviating some of the pressure on developers and mods to capture this feedback in general conversations.

Road to Vostok

• Hardcore single-player survival game developed by Antti Leinonen

• Pre-release / Early Access

• 9.3k Discord members | 6k messages last 30 days (26 Feb–26 Mar)

Our analysis of the game is before Road to Vostok entered its Early Access period on April 7, when the Discord server was sitting at 9.3k members. The success of its Early Access period led to that number nearly doubling to 17k members a month later.

Balancing community management responsibilities with game development

As a solo developer, Antii Leinonen needs to carefully manage how much time he spends communicating with players while developing the game and promoting it – a constant balancing act that other solo developers and small studios will be all too familiar with.

Despite that balancing act, Leinonen manages to post in-depth updates which are shared in dedicated news and teaser channels, while social updates are managed by a bot. Similar to Far Far West, channels for suggestions are structured as a forum. While difficult to proactively monitor, this format may make it easier for Leinonen to manage as he can work backwards through messages in chunks. There’s a dedicated feedback area in the Discord where players can post bug reports and suggestions.

To make bug monitoring more efficient, the bugs channel has a set of rules that players are encouraged to read before they submit. One of these requests is that players use the ‘search’ feature to see whether their bug has already been posted, so they can add to that rather than create a new post. Responding to duplicate reports isn’t a good use of time, so encouraging players to follow simple rules such as these is a great way for solo devs and small studios to save time.

The challenges of keeping on top of bug reports

Even with the help of mod support, keeping up with player messages in Discord is especially challenging for small teams and solo developers. Similar to Far Far West, many players are identifying bugs and glitches in the general chat and may not be reporting them via Leinonen’s preferred methods. The fast-paced nature of the general channel will make retroactively monitoring these bug mentions difficult.

Accord analysed 6000 messages posted in March and categorised 347 of these messages as an issue (technical errors, bugs, glitches, flaws, problems affecting gameplay or function). 88% of these messages were posted in the general channel.

General analysis of Road to Vostok’s community management in Discord

Leinonen’s use of bot automation and limited server channels means he still has time to provide lengthy updates and technical deep dives into game systems, which has led to him being praised by players for his transparent communication style. Bugs are addressed with notable transparency, but some players have noted that certain fixes implemented for the Early Access build, such as AI pathfinding and hardware-related performance issues, had not been migrated to the public demo at the time of analysis.

With the game’s Discord server growing at an impressive rate, the next big challenge for Leinonen will be keeping on top of bug fixes and player feedback, and finding the time to analyse that feedback so it can be used to shape future game updates.

Valheim

• Viking survival and sandbox game developed by Iron Gate Studio

• Early Access

• 158k Discord members | 33k messages last 30 days

Valheim has spent more than five years in Early Access with Iron Gate Studio regularly pushing out patches and major content updates in the lead up to its 1.0 release later this year. The Discord server is split into dedicated sections for key information (updates, news, patch notes); media (fan art, memes); help channels (platform-specific bug discussions), and a miscellaneous section where players can share their favourite Viking metal bands for good measure.

At the time of our analysis, the Discord server was sitting at 158k members, and that number had only grown by 1000 a month later. In comparison to games such as Far Far West and Road to Vostok, this suggests that active users in Discord grow alongside a game’s release schedule.

Joining the server, players are asked what channels they’re interested in before being shown the server rules. In the rules, players are specifically told not to message individual developers and to report players for rule-breaking, making the moderation process smoother for the studio and Discord mods.

Quickly identifying and actioning player feedback and bug reports

Valheim has dedicated bug discussion channels for Steam, Xbox, and Mac, where players can discuss and identify potential bugs before they send a bug report via the website. This approach should help reduce the number of duplicate bug reports coming in via the website, as players can work out if their specific bug has already been reported or not. That said, a lot of bug reporting will still take place in wider channels.

We recently launched an Insights tool providing game studios with a comprehensive overview of trending conversation topics according to their importance and message frequency. For busy Discord servers with high message frequencies, this makes the process of monitoring and actioning feedback more efficient, especially when topics are being discussed in high-frequency channels such as general chat.

Gathering feedback from wider conversations

Utilising player feedback extends way beyond bug reports. Wider conversations about game mechanics and specific features provide you with valuable data on how players feel about your game. These conversations can provide practical advice that can be actioned to build better experiences for other players. You should welcome these conversations rather than discourage them, especially as they can provide less-vocal players with an opportunity to share their thoughts on topics they might not have vocalised otherwise.

To get a better idea of what these conversations are and how they can be actioned, let’s take a look at what our Insights tool picked up from Valheim’s Discord server between March 23–27.

• Nearly 50 messages in a conversation about the difficulty of combat encounters in the Ashlands biome, with casual players feeling punished because of frequent deaths, portals breaking, and extended gear recovery times.

• Nearly 40 messages in a conversation about encounters with enemy Golems being “boring”. This is attributed to their high appearance rates, slow counter-weapon DPS, and significant knockback.

• Nearly 20 messages in a conversation about the 5% stat loss upon death being too harsh, especially for higher-level players.

General analysis of Valheim’s community management in Discord

After analysing 3000 messages in March relating to studio updates and community management, players generally perceive the Discord server as being well-managed. They praise the hands-on approach to technical support and quick bug reporting, but less-experienced players feel their frustrations aren’t being addressed regarding certain difficulty spikes in the game.

With over 150k players in the Discord, Iron Gate Studio would benefit from monitoring player discussions in general chat channels. While the presence of dedicated discussion channels for bugs and feedback are great places for players to converse, we regularly see conversations about bugs and feedback taking place outside of dedicated channels.

Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert has been one of the most divisive game releases of the year, but despite its rocky launch, this MMORPG has found a large following of dedicated players who can’t stop playing and talking about the game. At the time of our analysis at the end of March, there were 40k players in the Discord server but a phenomenal 481k messages posted (26 Feb–26 Mar), working out at an average of 12 messages per player every day. An extra 6000 members have joined in the last month.

After surpassing four million sales in just two weeks, the ongoing conversations around the game’s difficulty and lack of handholding continue to entice new players seeking a challenging game. But with so much to see and do in Crimson Desert and so little handholding, there’s no shortage of player questions, which explains the high volume of messages in the game’s Discord.

The dangers of unmoderated Discord channels

There’s no hiding from the fact that Crimson Desert suffered a rocky launch, with the game’s technical performance and clunky controller settings being a major point of contention between players. The game’s development studio, Pearl Abyss, has addressed most of these issues with new updates and patches, with players praising the studio for its timely response to addressing their concerns. Four patches were released within the first week of the game’s release.

Unfortunately, many players feel this focus on game development has been at the expense of moderating the Discord server. Analysis of over 9000 messages posted March 20–27 found feedback regarding Discord management is overwhelmingly negative. A recurring sentiment among players is that the server lacks active moderation, leading to what many describe as a “toxic” environment. Users reported frequent arguments over religion, racism, and a high volume of “beggars” asking for free game codes. While some users were eventually banned, many feel the response time is too slow and that the server needs more dedicated admins.

We explored this further by analysing 3000 messages categorised under the topic of ‘Community’, and two of the top three complaints related to a lack of moderation.

General analysis of Crimson Desert’s community management in Discord

It’s worth highlighting that the messages we analysed were in English, and these moderation issues, while severe, could be bigger than the studio realises, as there are more than 10 different channels for non-English language support. Creating localised channels is a great way for players who don’t speak English to socialise and build communities around your game, but they need active moderation with someone who speaks that language. The developers of Valheim have said this is why they don’t have non-English Discord channels when asked by their players.

Pearl Abyss needs to establish a mod presence within the Discord to build a positive community around their game. In the absence of moderation in the Discord, players are doing what they can to foster a positive environment by supporting each other with guides and advice, but conversations can be and are being derailed by the presence of trolls.

How to Build Stronger Communities That Positively Impact Performance

Developers who focus on building positive communities in Discord by transparently communicating updates and acknowledging feedback improve the chances of players sticking around. Players are often drawn to new games because of social circles; if those social circles existed within Discord but eventually disbanded, there’s a high likelihood that this will cause in-game churn as players follow their friends.

We also know from our own research that your loudest Discord members are likely to leave reviews. 200 positive reviews on Steam for Crimson Desert used the same username in Discord and had posted more than 10 messages in the server. Studios that focus on building positive communities in Discord and engage with players will see that effort reciprocated in future reviews.

Here’s a general overview of other tips that can help you build better communities in Discord:

Do

• Provide clear onboarding instructions for new members. Let them choose what channels and notifications they want to see but don’t overwhelm them with information.

• Ensure they’ve agreed to the rules and familiarised themselves with key information such as FAQs, by providing a completion checklist in onboarding instructions.

• Provide discussion channels for bug reports and feedback requests to encourage conversations that you can use for data.

• Make sure you communicate with your members at least once a week by providing updates on development milestones or wider community plans and events.

• Make sure you’ve got proper moderation in place to enforce rules and support new members looking for advice. A dedicated ‘help’ or ‘questions’ channel will encourage more passionate and vocal members to support others.

• Don’t create channels for the sake of it. Make sure you’ve got the resources within the studio to actively engage with players. Don’t create a Discord server if you don’t.

• There’s never a ‘perfect’ time to create a Discord server, but creating one once your game has been revealed gives you a head start on building a community. Just make sure you’re regularly communicating with them.

Don’t

• Create a Discord and think you can manage it solely through bot automation. Members want to know you’re listening to and engaging with them.

• Do use bots for specific channels that can be automated, where you’re sharing updates from other platforms.

• Create a Discord server without a clear plan or rules in place.

• Definitely don’t create a Discord without agreeing on whose responsibility it is within the studio to manage it and communicate with members.

• Forget about Discord if people responsible for managing it leave your studio. Then it becomes your responsibility. There are too many examples of social/community managers being let go from a game studio and Discord servers being abandoned. This will cause player churn.

• Create a Discord server without having a pipeline to capture and action feedback. The same goes for bug reports. Automation tools can help here, especially for time-strapped studios.

Lastly, here’s a snapshot of the biggest wins and woes shaping player communities this month.

Community Wins

• Epic Games has started offering refunds to players who had previously purchased in-game items based on the US singer D4VD, who has been charged with first-degree murder.

• Sandfall Interactive celebrated the first year anniversary of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with a free update adding new hairstyles for characters.

• Players can’t get enough of Crimson Desert, which shows no signs of slowing down on Steam despite being a single-player game.

Community Woes

• A huge balance update just hit ARC Raiders and it goes to show you can’t please everyone, as a large portion of the community is complaining about weapon nerfs.

• PlayStation fans are calling Sony’s 30-day online DRM check-in for its games “a disgrace”. This new update means players will have to keep their consoles online every 30 days or they won’t be able to play digitally downloaded games.

• Blizzard has issued a formal apology after the latest update for World of Warcraft contained too many bugs.

Will Marathon Succeed? Community Analysis of Marathon’s Server Slam & First 24 Hours

Marathon is the new team-based extraction shooter from Bungie, the game studio responsible for the original Halo games and Destiny. This is Bungie’s first major new project in nearly ten years, and Sony’s $3.6 billion acquisition of the studio in 2022 means there’s a lot of pressure riding on Marathon’s success, which will likely need to reach millions of players to be considered a commercial success.

No pressure, then. The global launch of Marathon on March 5 comes at a time when a growing number of new live-service shooters are struggling to reach a target audience of players who are already heavily invested in games such as Call of Duty, Fortnite, Battlefield, and most recently, Arc Raiders, another extraction shooter and arguably Marathon’s biggest competitor with 14 million copies sold since its release in October, 2025.

This creates an environment where some new releases are dying on arrival. Sony’s 2024 release of Concord was shut down just two weeks after launch, and the recently released Highguard, a live-service shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, is shutting down on March 12, two months after its release in January.

Will Marathon eventually follow the same fate? Or does Bungie’s new shooter show promising signs for the future?

To find out, we analysed over 70,000 messages from the game’s official Discord server during the game’s Server Slam and 24-hour launch window.

Marathon’s Server Slam: How Do Players Feel After Their First Hands-On Experience?

Marathon’s Server Slam took place February 26–March 2, offering players a free trial experience of the game ahead of its global release. No sign-ups or pre-orders of the game were needed to jump in and certain elements of progression such as cosmetic customisation and loot carry over to the full release of the game.

Nearly 70,000 messages were posted during the Server Slam, with the most popular topics as follows:

Gameplay (13k messages)

The most prominent discussion during this period centers on the game’s Time to Kill (TTK). Hundreds of different players engaged in heated debates regarding whether the current lethality levels are appropriate for an extraction shooter, with some arguing it’s too low while others say it encourages more tactical gameplay.

The PvE vs PvP balance and AI difficulty were also frequently discussed. A significant point of contention was the difficulty of the UESC bots, which many describe as “brutal,” “bullet sponges,” or “aimbots” that drain resources like ammo and heals before a PvP encounter even begins. While some players are requesting PvE modes, others argue PvP is fundamental to the game’s identity.

One of the most major points we highlighted here – although not a significant point of discussion – was the game’s onboarding and user interface. Approximately 50 players said they feel “lost” or “aimless” due to an inadequate tutorial. Other common complaints include the complexity of the implant system, the difficulty of finding specific contract objectives on the map, and UI clutter that makes reading stats or managing inventory during a run frustrating.

Items (6k messages)

UI clarity and item identification were major issues for players, linking back to previously mentioned discussions around UI clutter and poor onboarding. Over 100 unique players expressed their frustration regarding item icons and inventory management, with a common complaint being that many items, specifically implants, cores, and weapon mods, look nearly identical, “like USB sticks.” As such, there are numerous requests for unique icons, symbols, or better color-coding to help players identify items at a glance. Bungie should work to address this to avoid player churn.

Some other major issues relating to items are consumables and resource management. Resource scarcity was a recurring theme for over 50 players, particularly regarding healing items and shield rechargers. Many find the cost of meds in the shop to be “unreasonable” and the drop rates in the wild to be too low, leading to “gear fear” where players are hesitant to bring in high-tier loadouts without sufficient healing support.

Performance (6k messages)

During the selected period, players focused heavily on technical performance issues, with poor PC optimization, specifically regarding high CPU utilisation and low GPU usage, being the most prominent theme. Over 140 different players discussed the game’s inefficient use of hardware resources, saying CPU often reached 100% utilisation while the GPU remained underutilised, often at 20–30%. Players noted that changing graphics settings from “Ultra” to “Low” often resulted in negligible FPS gains, suggesting an engine-level bottleneck.

Console players, particularly those on PS5 Pro, expressed disappointment over being locked to 60 FPS, arguing that 120 FPS should be the standard for a competitive shooter in 2026. PC players also shared their struggles to maintain stable frame rates above 100 FPS, even on high-end hardware.

70 different players reported critical technical issues. A major point of discussion was the Nvidia “Game Ready” driver (595.59), which reportedly caused hardware instability and overheating, leading many to recommend rolling back to previous versions. AMD users also reported significant rendering bugs, such as “black textures” or geometry failing to load on older cards like the RX 580.

Community (6k messages)

Similar to community discussions prior to the launch of the Server Slam, more than 200 unique players discussed the prevalence of negativity, “ragebaiting,” and coordinated trolling within the community. Many long-term fans and active players expressed exhaustion with what they perceive as a “hate train” fueled by social media algorithms, streamers, and comparisons to other titles like Concord or Arc Raiders. We see this as a promising sign for the game as it actually shows a core demographic of players rallying together in support of the game.

Balance (5k messages)

Outside of the heated discussions around Marathon’s TTK, approximately 150 players focused their concerns on balancing issues with two powerful weapons: the WSTR (Double Barrel Shotgun) and the Longshot sniper rifle. The WSTR is frequently described as “broken” or “overtuned” due to its ability to two-tap players even through high-tier shields at close range, while snipers are criticised for their one-tap headshot potential, with many players specifically calling for a nerf to thermal scope accessibility.

Nearly 50 players discussed the need for refined matchmaking systems. There are frequent requests for “Aggression-Based Matchmaking” (ABMM) to separate “kill-on-sight” players from those focusing on contracts. Additionally, solo and duo players expressed frustration at being matched against coordinated three-man squads, arguing that the fast TTK makes 1v3 encounters statistically insurmountable for the average player. Again, this is something that Bungie will need to closely monitor to avoid player churn.

Positive Feedback

Players overwhelmingly praised the core combat loop, frequently citing Bungie’s signature “gunplay” as the standout feature of the Server Slam. The mechanical feel of the weapons, described as “weighty” and “punchy,” provided a satisfying experience that many felt was unmatched in the extraction shooter genre. This sentiment was echoed across dozens of messages, with players noting that even when they lost gear, the act of shooting and moving felt inherently rewarding.

A significant portion of the community enjoyed the game’s complexity and the “click” moment that occurred after several hours of play, alleviating some of the potential concerns around player churn. Unlike more casual extraction shooters, players appreciated that the game required thought, awareness, and a genuine effort to learn mechanics like heat management and shell-specific abilities.

Areas of Improvement

The performance issues could be a major issue for player retention if Bungie doesn’t address them soon after launch. Similarly, criticisms around onboarding could lead to new players who aren’t familiar with the gameplay mechanics of extraction shooters to drop the game if they find it too confusing.

• UI/UX Polish: Streamlining inventory and mod descriptions to reduce early-game friction.

• TTK Monitoring: While some love the lethality, others find it too fast to allow for counterplay, especially when facing “broken” weapons like the WSTR shotgun or snipers with thermal scopes. Balancing the lethality of these weapons will ensure “skill expression” isn’t overshadowed by “first-to-see” wins.

• Onboarding: Improving the tutorial to better explain the value of contracts and resource management to reduce potential churn.

• Technical Issues and Optimisation: Bungie needs to fix performance issues on PC, especially as many die-hard shooter players (an important target audience) will be playing on PC.

Marathon’s Server Slam: General Consensus

The general response to the Server Slam was overwhelmingly positive, with a significant number of players reporting they were “hooked” or “addicted” after just a few hours of play. While initial impressions for some were skeptical, the gameplay loop proved highly effective at converting testers into buyers. Data shows a high frequency of messages regarding pre-orders, with many players specifically stating the Server Slam convinced them to purchase the Deluxe Edition.

The sentiment from the Server Slam suggests a strong launch with a dedicated, high-skill player base. The game is successfully carving out a niche between the “casual” experience of Arc Raiders and the “hardcore” suffering of Tarkov. The high frequency of players reporting 20-40+ hours of playtime over a single weekend indicates strong retention potential.

That said, there are still several issues with performance and onboarding that could result in player churn if they aren’t addressed quickly by Bungie.

Did Marathon’s Server Slam Players Convert to Sales?

Marathon’s Server Slam peaked at 143k players according to SteamDB, falling short of ARC Raiders’ 193k during the Open Alpha. That said, the game managed to climb all the way to No.3 in pre-sales on the Steam US Chart during the Server Slam before eventually landing at No.1. According to analysis from AlineaAnalytics, Marathon is currently sitting at around 1.2 million total wishlists, nearly 20% of which were placed during the Server Slam.

This analysis aligns with what we’ve seen from player messages on Discord, with Marathon’s Server Slam functioning as a highly effective conversion tool. Approximately 50 players explicitly stated they preordered the game after playing the trial. Discussions highlight a ‘hooked’ sentiment, where initial skepticism or lack of interest was replaced by excitement after several hours of gameplay.

Player Feedback from Marathon’s First 24 Hours

Over 20,000 unique messages were posted during the game’s first 24 hours. Concurrent users on Steam peaked at 88k on March 5, but will likely increase as more players dive into the game over the weekend.

Analysis of player feedback indicates that many performance issues identified during the Server Slam persist into the launch build. Using Accord’s ‘Insights’ feature, an always-on monitoring tool that detects spikes in conversations around specific topics and categories, we’ve categorised the most prominent issues below according to their message frequency and severity.

Hardware Optimisation

While a minority of players report improved optimization, a significant volume of messages highlights ongoing struggles with CPU utilisation, and some players claim inconsistent frame rates and stuttering has worsened since the Server Slam.

Connection and Stability Issues - The Weasel Error

Over 200 unique players are reporting a near-total inability to play the game due to constant disconnects labelled as “error code: weasel,” an error message used by Bungie to indicate networking issues. The frequency of these disconnects is a major point of frustration, with many players stating they are kicked every 30 to 60 seconds. Due to the unplayable state of the game, more than 10% of players said they are discussing or actively pursuing refunds through Steam.

Critical Crashes and Kernel Errors

Nearly 20 players reported frequent crashes, often occurring immediately upon finding a match or during exfiltration. A specific technical conflict was identified involving Focusrite audio interfaces and MIDI software, resulting in a “KERNEL_MODE_HEAP_CORRUPTION” Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) or total system freezes. This could be a major issue for the game’s marketing as content creators who aren’t using USB mics will likely be running their gear through Focusrite interfaces. This could transform into a potential PR disaster if a major content creator encounters the issue.

UI and Console UX Affecting Inventory Management

Inventory management and looting systems lack the expected drag-and-drop functionality for items and attachments. Players report this behaviour across stash, loadout, and vault interactions, leading to perceived inefficiency and clunkiness. Console players report that the cursor speed in menus is prohibitively slow, making mid-match inventory management dangerous. Additionally, the lack of a “multi-select” option for selling items is a major point of friction for inventory-heavy gameplay.

Has Marathon’s Launch Gone Well?

The launch of Marathon has seen a polarized but generally positive initial reception among those who purchased the game. While Steam reviews are reported to be over 90% positive, the community is deeply divided between enthusiastic “glazers” and vocal critics. Many players report being deeply “hooked” by the gunplay, lore, and aesthetic, with some logging 12-hour sessions on day one.

Bungie’s next big challenge herein will be addressing the issues we’ve highlighted above. Despite the positive reviews, there is a substantial risk of player churn due to several critical issues identified by players, namely technical performance, connection errors and UI/UX friction.

Whether Marathon will reach the levels of commercial success that Bungie and Sony are hoping for remains to be seen. While it’s still early days, the consensus among players is that Marathon will likely settle into a niche market similar to Hunt: Showdown rather than achieving massive mainstream popularity. There is significant anxiety regarding the Steam player count, but others argue that the console player base is likely much larger and will sustain the game – something we’ll learn as figures are released.

For now, Marathon isn’t off to the strongest of starts, but there’s a good foundation here to build on if Bungie can address the major issues around performance and UI.

Lastly, here’s a snapshot of the biggest wins and woes shaping player communities this month.

Community Wins

• The next update for Hunt: Showdown will hide supply and extraction points from players during its Devil’s Trail event, adding an element of surprise for die-hard players.

• Resident Evil: Requiem has surpassed five million sales, making it one of the most successful Resident Evil launches of all time.

• The latest patch for Outer Worlds 2 fixes many of the most commonly cited issues with the game, including a major issue affecting a bugged achievement.

Community Woes

• Skate is locking a map area behind a paywall after promising no map areas would be locked behind paywalls. Players aren’t happy and are now accusing EA of gaslighting them after editing FAQ sections to remove previous promises to not paywall content.

• Highguard is shutting down, but will get a final “farewell” patch to reward players for their support before the game comes offline on March 12.

• There are some major changes coming to the second season of Black Ops 7, but the community feels underwhelmed by the lack of new perks and no new elite enemies.

The new mechanic triggered widespread backlash across social platforms and forums, with players fiercely debating its impact on fairness, grind, and the game’s core identity. To understand what went wrong — and why — we analysed more than 50,000 community messages, uncovering the key pain points driving player frustration.

The Expedition Project: A Fresh Approach to Progression Wipes

As an extraction shooter, the goal of ARC Raiders is to drop into maps, gather loot, complete quests/challenges and survive to make it out alive by cooperating with or taking down other players. Players can also upgrade their character by levelling up and unlocking new skills, crafting or upgrading new weapons and gear along the way.

Most extraction shooters implement periodic progression wipes to combat gear inflation and keep the game appealing for new players. As an example, Escape from Tarkov uses a mandatory progression wipe every six to eight months to essentially reset the game. ARC Raiders does things a little differently via its ‘Expedition Project’ system, a source of popular debate amongst the community.

Embark Studios announced how the Expedition Project would work in a pre-release October blog post, but in short, once a player reaches level 20, they can embark on ‘Expeditions,’ an optional progression wipe where players “lose anything inherent to their character’s progress,” in return for permanent account unlocks, unique cosmetics and account buffs. Ultimately, Embark Studios says this allows highly engaged players to experience the game fresh with benefits while enjoying plenty of bragging rights in the process.

Expedition Project Details Cause Concerns

In a blog post published on 6 December, Embark Studios revealed more information on the Expedition system, as well as some of the specific rewards and requirements tied to progression resets. The big focus was on how players could earn up to five new skill points tied to their stash value (the combined value of their items and in-game currency, coins). This is where the problems started.

Players were told they would need a stash value of five million to unlock all five skill points. To put that into perspective, even hardcore players would need to spend a minimum of ten hours farming in high-risk areas to build that amount of stash. But to make matters worse, players had less than two weeks to reach that five million value as the Expedition window closed on 22 December.

Players weren’t happy, as data from Accord shows.

• From 1 December to 31 December, Accord tracked more than 50,000 messages specifically relating to the Expedition system.

• 20% of these messages focused on the timing and communication of the Expedition details. Accord automatically creates new sub-topics according to trending topics in Discord, and a new sub-topic for ‘Timing and Communication of Expedition Details’ was created with over 10,000 messages.

• 30% of messages were related to questions; nearly 25% of messages were related to complaints; 13% of messages were related to requests, and 10% of messages were related to issues.

Player Pulse: How Players Felt About the First ARC Raiders Expedition

Analysis of ARC Raiders Discord messages sent 6–12 December shows us which sub-topics related to the Expedition were generating the highest volume of messages.

The Five Million Credit Controversy

400 unique players specifically cited the late timing of the announcement and five million stash requirement, arguing the threshold is too high for casual players and was announced too close to the departure window. Many argue that this requirement turns the game into a “second job” and rewards only “no-lifers” or streamers.

Reset Mechanics and Reward Clarity

Nearly 200 unique players sought clarification on what exactly is lost during the Expedition reset. Key points of confusion include whether workbench levels are reset to level 1 or removed entirely, whether quest progress is wiped, and if the bonus skill points raise the level cap from 75 to 80 or simply provide a head start at level 1.

Impact on Gameplay and the “Free Kit” Meta

Over 100 unique players noted a drastic shift in the game’s atmosphere following the Expedition announcement. Players reported that lobbies were dominated by “free loadouts” and “rats” who avoid using high-tier gear to preserve their stash value for the 5 million goal. This has led to an increase in “kill on sight” (KOS) behavior and extract camping, as players scramble for any possible value. Many complain that the “magic” of cooperative play has been lost, as players are now incentivized to hoard resources rather than engage in high-stakes boss fights or help newer raiders.

Blueprint Retention and Muling Concerns

Nearly 100 unique players discussed the loss of blueprints during the Expedition reset. A significant portion of the conversation revolves around “muling”—transferring blueprints to friends or secondary accounts that are not resetting to retrieve them after the wipe. Some players are calling for a block on this behaviour to maintain the integrity of the reset, while others argue that blueprints should be permanent unlocks to avoid a tedious re-grind every season.

Community Feedback: How to Improve Future Expeditions

In an interview with GamesRadar, ARC Raiders design lead, Virgil Watkins, says roughly one million players finished the first Expedition. That’s less than 10% of players. Watkins also said that “around 40 to 45%” of players earned the five million Stash value needed to unlock all five skill points, but admits “[Embark] probably came out a bit late with the five million coin requirement.”

ARC Raiders’ Expedition system isn’t going anywhere for the time being, but Watkins does say it will change and improve. “This system will change,” he adds. “We’re not precious about it. We’ll keep adjusting to make sure it is properly incentivizing players.”

In the wake of major updates and game changes like this, listening to your community can be a great way of gathering feedback that can shape future system changes. Embark is listening as it’s already aware of the criticism around the five million stash value, but we used Accord to gather further suggestions on how future Expeditions could be improved.

• Base rewards on total value extracted over the season rather than final stash value to prevent players from hoarding and playing with free loadouts.

• Allow players to pick a small section of blueprints that they can keep, as the high value of some blueprints means players don’t want to embark on Expeditions. Alternatively, let players buy/earn blueprints back through level/quest/price-gating. This should be a priority, as many players are already ​​using alternate (”mule”) accounts or friends who aren’t wiping to store their blueprints and high-value gear.

• Ensure details of future Expeditions are communicated in greater detail and with more notice.

• Dedicated servers for PvE and PvP bearing in mind the requirements around Expedition goals.

• Consider dropping permanent skill points and stash space as permanent rewards, as accumulating gameplay advantages like this risk becoming unfair over time.

• Some players are suggesting mandatory wipes rather than optional ones. Given the immense popularity of ARC Raiders, we don’t think this would work with the game’s playerbase.

• Cosmetic rewards should have more colour options and come with supporting cinematics for ultimate bragging rights.

• Some players suggested making certain loot craftable at work benches (Steel Springs - Oil - Simple Gun Parts - Wires) but this could create an unfair gameplay advantage.

Lastly, here’s a snapshot of the biggest wins and woes shaping player communities this month.

Community Wins

• Call of Duty fans are happy after Treyarch announced the fan-favourite escort mode ‘Safeguard’ will return in the second season of Black Ops 7, following a seven-year hiatus from the series!

• A new update for Guild Wars has introduced an ‘Ironman’ mode inspired by a community-driven challenge where players must earn all their skills and items without the relief of player trading or in-game traders. This follows the success of similar modes in World of Warcraft and, most recently, RuneScape.

• Monster Hunter Wilds has been the subject of heavy criticism from PC players due to major platform-specific issues with the game, but it looks like the most serious issues have now been addressed in a recent patch.

Community Woes

• Wildlight Entertainment’s hero shooter Highguard has been having a rough time ever since it was revealed as the final game at The Game Awards, a slot typically reserved for major announcements. After debuting with nearly 100k players at launch, concurrent players have fallen by 90%.

• A lack of notable improvements in the latest patch for Football Manager 2026 is making players suspect Sports Interactive has already moved its focus to the sequel.

• Embark has rolled out a new ban system for cheaters in ARC Raiders, but some players feel it’s too lenient and doesn’t go far enough to punish those who are ruining the game for others.