Even if you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ve probably never heard of Undawn. That’s probably for a good reason- the zombie survival game is hardly an exemplar of the genre, with the typical bland writing and grindy, pay-to-win gameplay endemic to both that genre and the mobile platform it launched on. There was only one unique selling point in the game’s arsenal, in fact: veteran actor Will Smith, who plays one of the game’s principal characters with a performance that redefines “phoning it in”. At this point, it’s more like telegraphing it in.
From actually playing the buggy, janky mess that is this game, I can only assume that most of the reported $140 million budget went straight into Smith’s wallet. The Fresh Prince can’t be cheap.
Evidently, going all in on Smith wasn’t a wise investment either. According to a recent report from Reuters, Undawn has seen only about a quarter of a million in revenue in its eight-month lifespawn. That’s about 0.2% of its budget, if anyone’s keeping track. The loss was so monumental that parent company Tencent is moving away from big-budget games altogether, with the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Jade also facing cuts and delays. All because Will Smith couldn’t move enough copies.
At least it’s still better than The Day Before.
