Source: Lightspeed Studios / Undawn / Will Smith
Even Will Smith wasn't enough to prevent this video game from failing like his movie Wild wild west.
dawn, the zombie survival game starring will smith bombed epically according to a report from Reuters. The site said the game was a “key” in-house project at Tencent and “failed spectacularly” even with Smith's involvement and the game's 1 billion yuan (about $140 million) cabinet.
We first reported the existence of the game in May 2023. Before its release in June, 2.3 million people pre-registered to play it. That didn't matter, as the game fell short of expectations.
In the game, which is eerily reminiscent of Smith's film I am a legendthe actor plays Trey Jones and serves as your guide in the game.
Billed as a free-to-play game for mobile and PC, as well as:
- Base building and survival mechanics
- An expansive open world
- Vehicle combat
- Customization details
- PvPvE platform
Per Reuters, through research firm Appmagic, Undawn only brought in $287,000. The game's poor performance led Tencent to change strategy in its mobile division, canceling a mobile game based on Square Enix's Nier franchise and delaying Assassin's Creed: Jade mobile game.
News of the game flopping has surprised many, with many saying they didn't even know it existed.
One person on X, formerly of Twitter, wrote, “…there was I will Blacksmith-Ahead zombie survival game called Daybreak?”
“I'm not shocked as someone who is just hearing about The I will Blacksmith-Survival game with zombie front Dawn,” wrote another X user.
Well, we knew. We just thought people didn't care.
In the gallery below, you can see more reactions to Will Smith's game, Undawn, flopping.
