"Easier to Blame Marketing Than Admit We Failed at Making the Game" - Developer's Honest Take

Overview

On Reddit's r/gamedev community, a game developer made an honest observation: "It's easier to say we failed at marketing than admit we failed at making the game." This post received over 290 upvotes and sparked heated discussion in the game development community.

The Developer's Argument

The post author stated: "I think most of us don't really aspire to be the greatest marketer out there, so it's easy to say that we didn't market enough, marketed in a wrong way or so. But most of all aspire to make good games so it's much harder to admit when the game itself is not working out as we'd like it to."

This is a sharp critique of a common excuse pattern among indie game developers. When games fail, many developers say "we didn't market enough," but the actual issue may have been the game's quality itself.

Community Response

This post resonated strongly with the game development community. Many developers shared their experiences and agreed.

One commenter said, "This hits the nail on the head. We blame marketing when games fail, but often the real issues were gameplay, UI/UX, or the content itself."

Another developer explained with specific metrics: "If you had enough wishlists on Steam but low conversion rates, that's not a marketing problem—that's a game problem."

Marketing vs Product Quality

Of course, this doesn't mean marketing isn't important. Even the best game can't succeed if people don't know it exists.

However, the key is balance. Many indie developers completely ignore marketing and then say "we failed because of no marketing" after launch, but the actual issue may have been the game's lack of competitiveness.

A veteran developer pointed out: "Good games spread by word of mouth. If there's no response after launch, it's not because people don't know about the game—it's because the game didn't convince them."

Importance of Self-Reflection

The core of this discussion is self-reflection. When a game fails, it's easy to blame external factors (marketing, luck, timing, etc.), but honest self-evaluation is crucial.

Questions like "Is the game really fun?", "Why should players play this game?", "What are our strengths compared to competing games?" need honest answers.

Learning from Failure

If developers attribute failure to "lack of marketing," they risk repeating the same mistakes in their next project. If the real problems were game design, balance, or user experience, simply increasing the marketing budget won't solve them.

Most successful indie developers experienced multiple failures but honestly learned from each and applied those lessons to their next projects.

Conclusion

Both marketing and product quality are important. However, as game developers, our core competency is making good games. Before blaming marketing when a game fails, we must first honestly evaluate the game itself.

This post resonated because it directly addressed a truth many developers knew but were reluctant to admit.