The rise of the patient buyer

All of these changes have modified the dynamic between publishers and consumers. Gamers have started to expect better and more frequent updates from publishers, and in many cases develop unrealistic expectations around the development of games based on the ability to constantly update them.

Let’s take a look at a very high profile instance where these expectations collided. Cyberpunk 2077was the most anticipated launch of 2020, eight years after the initial announcement of the game, and it didn’t go as expected, with constant delays to the release date and developers even getting personal threats over them. The parent company of the studio developing the game, CD Projekt, was between a rock and a hard place, trying to balance the temptation to capitalize on the hype generated around the release and the risks of prematurely releasing an incomplete game.

Eventually, both parties were disappointed, with users reporting numerous bugs and performance issues on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. Cyberpunk 2077 was labeled one of the biggest flops in gaming history and even removed from digital storefronts. A couple of years later, when the fully finished version of the game was released, critics and consumers started to change their tune and proclaimed it the top game it had always meant to be.

This botched release (and later recovery) can be told through financial results: the year of its launch, 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 sold $351 million, with 13.7 million copies being purchased in the first 21 days. But after the disappointment with the bugs, in 2021 it sold less than a third of that amount (around $91 million), a number that slowly but steadily increased in 2022 and 2023 with the release of the fully developed version of the game.

The rise of the patient buyer.

Besides the sales numbers, Cyberpunk 2077tells us the story of a new type of consumer, the patient buyer, as data shows that consumers are now more likely to wait until games have launched to see if the hype is real before investing in them. With the rising expectations from customers on video game experiences, the cost of developing an AAA game (the more technically complex and blockbuster-like titles) has systematically risen—from a $50-$150 million average cost 5 years ago to $200 million or more in 2024. This, in turn, has famously elevated the price of AAA games for consumers over the $70 mark.

Enter the patient consumer, who doesn’t feel the need to wait in line at midnight for that physical release, and can wait until the release has reached the desired maturity online before investing $70 or more.

A change in marketing strategies?

The real question is this: have publishers changed the way they market based on this crucial shift? In other words: have they acknowledged the rise of the patient buyer?

Not necessarily.

Marketers still treat game launches as if they're crucial, do-or-die events. The graph below —built using our proprietary AI tool Huge Live— represents the overlaying and normalizing of six of the top comparative games from different studios and their conversational trend lines based on the performance of these games around their respective release dates.