For March's PlayStation Now announcement, Sony decided to shake things up and add Shadow Warrior 3 to its subscription-based service the same day that it officially launched across all other consoles. For most gamers, the biggest factor of their excitement was not necessarily tied to the release of Shadow Warrior 3, but the implication that Sony may be setting a tone for future first-day releases on its PlayStation Now service.
Unfortunately for Sony, what could have been the perfect way to announce a massive change in its PlayStation Now service was largely overlooked due to the tepid reception that Shadow Warrior 3 received from fans and critics alike. In light of the performance of Shadow Warrior 3, it's probably safe to say that Sony would have been better off to delay this experiment with its PlayStation Now service it had a suitable title—one that could generate the excitement worthy of such a potentially game-changing announcement.
Shadow Warrior 3 is Plagued By Performance Issues
Shadow Warrior 3 was lambasted by fans for a myriad of different reasons: the series' quirky dialogue felt off despite a well-intentioned voice actor change, the story was ineffectual at best, and the gameplay was slammed for being time-intensive and boring. If these weren't bad enough on their own, Shadow Warrior 3 is also saddled with a handful of performance issues. While most launches are expected to have a fair share of issues, the fact that Shadow Warrior 3 is only available for a few months of PlayStation Now means that Flying Wild Hog is now on an extremely tight schedule to get its performance up to par.
With Shadow Warrior 3 representing PlayStation Now's first-ever day one release, the title's poor performance—both literally and critically—is a nightmare scenario for Sony. If fans are not captivated by their first impressions of the game, they're unlikely to revisit the title even after the requisite updates. For the PlayStation Now service, this is about as bad as a debut of their experiment as imaginable. While it was initially intended to entice fans to stick with the service, it probably has more than a few heading for the doors.
The Shadow Warrior Franchise is Not a Household Name
Ultimately, even if the title had been well-received, Sony's choice to debut a major change to their PlayStation Now service with the Shadow Warrior franchise was doomed to fail. Since Sony intends to focus on its efforts to give the PlayStation Plus subscription an overhaul, they probably should have started their experiment with a more well-known franchise.
Yes, if Shadow Warrior 3 has been an absolute roaring success, it may have achieved the level of attention that Sony had hoped for, but relying on an incredible reception by the gaming community seems like a risky proposition to start with. Instead, Sony's main focus should have been to generate significant buzz, which could have been achieved by offering a massive title that most fans would have happily purchased anyway—something like a new Sly Cooper or the like.
The Timing Was All Wrong for Shadow Warrior 3 and the PlayStation Now Change
It's not a stretch to say that Elden Ring's launch is arguably one of the biggest of all time. It has completely dominated all the major headlines, broken all of FromSoftware's sales records, and, most importantly, monopolized a huge portion of the gaming community's time. Despite having already delayed Shadow Warrior 3, Flying Wild Hog probably could have safely looked at Elden Ring's reception in the week leading up to Shadow Warrior 3's launch and pushed its own release back another month or so.
With nearly the entire gaming community focused on a single title, it was probably more or less irrelevant which title was going to debut the change in PlayStation Now. In truth, the timing was just entirely wrong. It doesn't help, however, that the game Sony chose, Shadow Warrior 3, was also met with negative reviews.
Shadow Warrior 3 is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.