Top of mind for me after reading this article is that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet should just be called The Heretic Prophet, and Horizon: Zero Dawn should have just been called Zero Dawn.

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[–] 8 points 3 hours ago

I asked GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless

Talking about names, that is a very Unamerican family name.

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  • [–] 21 points 7 hours ago (23 children)
  • [–] [S] 10 points 7 hours ago (18 children)

    Rise of the

    Shadow of the

    Tomb Raider did both of them.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 hours ago* (17 children)

    Wth your example in the post "Horizon: Zero Dawn should have just been called Zero Dawn", how would it be more memorable? Horizon is a catch word to have with all their games in the series, for easier recognition with later releases. It makes perfect sense for a game series that is planned to be like this, and perfectly memorable.

    The game quality makes names memorable, not the other way around.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 hours ago (1 child)

    Duskfade is a perfectly pleasant 3D platformer with Kingdom Hearts-style combat that came out a couple of months ago. Once I've finished typing this paragraph, however, it will once again erase itself from my memory, because there's nothing evocative about the name.

    I feel that says more about the game than the name. Like I find (scrolls through Steam library) Bullet Witch is a more memorable name than say Portal, but I can tell you a hell of a lot more about the latter.

    "Beyond that—I actually think that naming isn't that important, since most people buy a game based on video footage, someone else playing it, or a recommendation. And we've seen in music and elsewhere that weird names are in no way a blocker to becoming successful." Carless cites Steely Dan and Bananarama as examples.

    Do people really look at the videos on Steam? I always immediately click past them to look at the images.

    Failbetter's next game is called Mandrake—the result of lots of collaborative longlisting, Flynn says. As well as encapsulating horticultural and sorcerer-type themes, it's the name of the game's main character.

    This would be like if Esoteric Ebb called itself 'Cleric', though given Wizards of the Coast is publishing a game called 'Warlock: Dungeon & Dragons' I suppose it wouldn't be that out there.

    Good article though.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 hours ago

    Horizon : Zero Dawn is a terrible title. Zero Dawn is only marginally better.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 hours ago (6 children)

    Because now you can build it into a franchise. Intergalactic: <INSERT_TITLE>

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  • [–] [S] 13 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

    Yeah, but Flynn's suggestion (and I'd very much agree) is to save that for the sequel. You'll get a much more memorable title for your first entry, and then you can market off of that. If I might retroactively ruin a few other series that way:

    • Half-Life: Mysteries of the G-Man
    • Ghost: Tsushima
    • BioShock: Fall of Rapture
    • Diablo: The Battle of Hell
    • PUBG: Battlegrounds...wait a minute...
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  • [–] 9 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

    Player Unknown's Battlegrounds Battlegrounds is such a weird case. The name was stupid to begin with, everyone ended up just calling it PUBG. Then they rebranded to PUBG being the company name and the game name, but then slapped Battlegrounds back on the end anyway?!

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  • [–] 2 points 7 hours ago (1 child)

    Pokemon also started out as Pocket Monsters in the original Japanese release. When it came to release outside Japan, there was trademark issues and they had to find an alternative name... ended up with Pokemon. Later they rebranded the game in Japan too. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

    Wild Hearts and Sayonara Wild Hearts are not in the same series. Tales of Zau is not a part of the Tales of Series. Just look at how many games are Z something or something Z.

    Why bother with reinventing the title wheel when you can just hope that you'll have a subset of buyers that purchase expecting a different level of quality?

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  • [–] 3 points 6 hours ago* (3 children)

    Horizon: Zero Dawn should have just been called Zero Dawn.

    It should have been "Horizon." That's the game's series title. And since it was the first one, it didn't need a subtitle at all.

    Also, in the first paragraph it seems like the author is confused by words that are just a bit similar and not even the same since they are mixing together games with "dusk" in the title and games with "dust" in the title.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 6 hours ago* (2 children)

    Zero Dawn was a thing in the game's back story that explained how everything came to be. Horizon was a throwaway word in a monologue toward the end of the game, and they probably also risked brand trouble with Forza: Horizon, which predated it. That's my case anyway. "Horizon" seemed a bad fit for that game's title.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 hours ago* (1 child)

    Fair. And also, naming things is hard. I am numb to it by now; video games have always tended to have goofy, nonsense, or boring names. Tho, back in the day, we just assumed it was a translation thing considering a vast majority of the popular games in my youth were made by Japanese developers.

    "Metal Gear Solid, huh? That's certainly a name."

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  • [–] 2 points 7 hours ago

    Duskbloods is the new FromSoftware game, so there's no chance anyone will forget that.

    Oof, I had already forgotten it before they mentioned FromSoftware. It sounds like a teenage vampire drama...

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