Xbox’s New Release Faceplants on Steam: Double Fine’s Keeper Barely Registers — and That’s a Marketing Red Flag

The latest Xbox title has stumbled badly on Steam, a result that should give Microsoft pause. Keeper, from the Psychonauts 2 studio, peaked at just 191 concurrent players on Steam. Xbox’s newest game tanked with poor numbers on Valve’s store — and it highlights weak marketing.

 

Double Fine remains one of Xbox’s most imaginative teams. If we recently praised Obsidian as Xbox Game Studios’ pacesetter, the Psychonauts 2 creators aren’t far behind. Following that standout platformer, the studio has delivered another project bursting with personality, ingenuity, and craft. Enter Keeper, “a mystical, beautiful, and surreal adventure” that tells its story without words.

Launched on October 17 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, Keeper struggled on the latter — especially on Steam. SteamDB shows Double Fine’s latest didn’t even crack 200 simultaneous players on Valve’s storefront (topping out at 191), making it a clear commercial miss on this platform.

It may fare better on Xbox Series X|S and via the now-pricier Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Still, it’s striking that the world’s biggest PC store — which recently set a new concurrent user record — barely moved the needle for a game that could have been one of the year’s standout indies. That said, player sentiment is strong: on Steam, Keeper boasts a 92% positive rating and the “Very Positive” label.

 

Microsoft has to reflect

 

Priced at €29.99, Keeper is a worthy indie, but its visibility strategy seems to have fallen short. In a market saturated with releases — where attention skews toward big-budget tentpoles or zeitgeist indies like Hades 2 and Silksong — a stronger campaign was likely essential. Timing didn’t help either: October is jam-packed with major launches, which may have smothered this indie debut.

Source: 3DJuegos

Avatar photo
theGeek is here since 2019.

No comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.