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

The latest game to have Sweet Baby Inc. consult on it, Unknown 9: Awakening, performed worse than Concord on its release date only managing to garner a peak concurrent player base of just 169 players.

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

SteamDB data shows that the game hit an all-time peak of just 169 concurrent players around 8:00 PM ET on October 17th. That is far worse than Concord. If you recall, Concord hit a peak concurrent of 697 players when it released. Unknown 9: Awakening’s peak is 75% less than Concord!

Unknown 9: Awakening SteamDB peak concurrent player charts

These numbers are not at all surprising. Craig Skistimas aka Stuttering Craig noted that his retail insider informed him that pre-orders for the game were extraordinarily low.

He shared, “My retail insider who has access to the 800+ big box stores pre-order numbers tell me that Unknown 9 Awakening had a TOTAL of 46 pre-orders…  but 12 were cancelled. So actually there were only 34.”

“34 pre-orders in over 800 stores. YIKES,” he added.

Not only are gamers not playing the game, but those who did play it are not impressed at all as the game has “Mostly Negative” reviews on Steam.

Hounds on Steam wrote, “I didn’t even know this game was a thing and honestly it should have stayed that way. The faces are clunky, the enemies just stiff up and fall like figurines when defeated.”

He continued, “Ran okay but during transitions game almost blew itself up. Honestly the game feels and looks like its mid development with no polish should of cooked for at least another year save your money this sucks.”

Hounds on Steam

-=[GIEF]=- also wrote, “Wow, just wow. I got this game for free with a AMD GPU purchase. And even then I feel like I want a game refund. The combat feels like it is from 2005 as well as the lack of facial expressions. The eyes just stare straight ahead and it is quite disturbing.”

He added, “The combat is woeful, just dodge and hit. Stealth works the best, but it rarely stays that way.”

-=[GIEF]=- on Steam

Raygne also shared, “This is a mess. Combat is dated. Animations are strange in spots. As usual, they hired an attractive model for the face then butchered her because being pretty is wrong now. The eyes were dead like a shark. They didn’t even look in the right direction during scenes.”

“I could write a long review explaining everything but I won’t waste my time. It’s already failing but if you need one main cause, I will say this: Sweet Baby Inc was involved,” he added.

Raygne concluded, “It actually looked interesting so it’s a shame. Luckily I got it free from AMD. Who locks a game at 85 FPS?”

Raygne on Steam

The game was confirmed to have been worked on by Sweet Baby Inc. by The Shorty Awards. An entry for the game listed Sweet Baby Inc. co-founders David Bédard and Kim Belair in the game’s credits.

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 the game’s developer Reflector Entertainment Ltd. as a Brand Content Manager from April 2018 to March 2019.

David Bédard’s LinkedIn

Unknown 9: Awakening joins an ever-growing list of video games that are commercial failures after Sweet Baby Inc. touches them. The most well-known was Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. Warner Bros. Discovery had to take a $200 million impairment charge on that game after it failed following its release in February.

Other Sweet Baby Inc. failures include Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, and Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew.

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

What do you make of Unknown 9: Awakening only hitting 169 peak concurrent players on the day of its release?