A screenshot of Unknown 9: Awakening’s ranking on Steam DB’s Most Wishlisted Upcoming Games list. Screenshot taken on October 16, 2024 at 7:10 AM ET.

The Sweet Baby Inc. infected Unknown 9: Awakening from developer Reflector Entertainment that is published by Bandai Namco already looks to a complete and utter financial disaster.

A screenshot from Unknown 9: Awakening (2024), Reflector Entertainment

The game, which releases on October 17th, currently sits in position #794 on Steam’s Top Sellers list and just #349 on Steam DB’s Most Wishlisted Upcoming Steam Games list.

A screenshot of Unknown 9: Awakening’s ranking on Steam DB’s Most Wishlisted Upcoming Games list. Screenshot taken on October 16, 2024 at 7:10 AM ET.

Furthermore, Bandai Namco collaborated with streamer and former Game Informer writer Marcus Stewart to stream the game alongside Creative Director Christophe Rossignol and according to Twitch Tracker the entire stream on Twitch only received a peak viewership of 387 and its average viewership was just 274.

Unknown 9: Awakening Twitch stream data from Twitch Tracker

As of writing the stream received a total of just over 8,900 views. For comparison, the Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO Early Access trailer received a total of 84,570 views. That stream had average viewership of 3,350 viewers and hit a peak viewership of 4,323.

Over on YouTube, the video performed marginally better based on total views. The stream currently has 9,210 views. But it already has almost a 2:1 negative ratio. It currently has 257 likes compared to 428 dislikes.

Gamers were not just disliking the game, but they were expressing their distaste in the comments too. One user wrote, “the devs didn’t even try, what’s the point of releasing this trash.”

Another posted, “Where are the hell demons and the chainsaws and the fireballs and the giant swords and all the cool stuff games are supposed to have?”

“Commendable that Bandai is trying to salvage this train wreck, but it’s too late,” wrote another.

Still another wrote, “Modern audience you need to support this game so they can make more in the future.”

YouTube comments from Bandai Namco Entertainment America’s Unknown 9: Awakening Launch Stream

On top of this new data, YouTuber Doctor Disaster previously shared that the game had poor retail pre-orders.

He stated, “This person runs nine retail stores in a highly populated area. And I’m being told that in all nine stores combined there hasn’t been a single pre-order for Unknown 9: Awakening.”

“And I was recently contacted by someone else who works in the retail industry, who claims to run 14 stores. I am still vetting this person, but I will disclose this. I’m being told from this person that in those 14 stories they also have no seen a single pre-order for Unknown 9: Awakening.”

READ: Rumor: Sweet Baby Inc. Fired Chris Kindred Who Attempted To Cancel Brazilian Gamer KabrutusRambo

It is not surprising that the game appears to be a failure out of the gate given consultancy Sweet Baby Inc. worked on it. Sweet Baby Inc. co-founders David Bédard and Kim Belair were listed in the game’s credits section on an entry for the game for The Shorty Awards.

Bédard is credited as the Brand Content Manager at Reflector Entertainment Ltd. while Belair is credited as Story Architect at Sweet Baby Inc.

Screenshot from The Shorty Awards website

Bédard’s LinkedIn page also confirmed he worked for Reflector Entertainment Ltd. as a Brand Content Manager from April 2018 to March 2019.

David Bédard’s LinkedIn

Given Sweet Baby Inc. worked on the game, it was added to KabrutusRambo’s Sweet Baby Inc. detected Steam curator list, which now boasts nearly 450,000 followers.

Furthermore, it was reported that Reflector or Bandai Namco began banning individuals who mentioned Sweet Baby Inc. on the game’s Steam forums.

X user Disascho reported in March, “In the Steam forums for this new upcomming game they startet mass-banning everyone, who mentioned Sweet Baby, or said negative things about games being woke, it was a total Purge, they wiped around 99% of the Forum.”

 

As of writing there are multiple threads on the game’s forums bashing the game for its association to Sweet Baby Inc. and its pushing of woke ideology whether that be through the game’s character design or its narrative.

A screenshot of the Unknown 9: Awakening Steam forums

What are your expectations for Unknown 9: Awakening? How many concurrent Steam players do you think the game will get?