Embracer Group, the media conglomerate behind a host of game studios, announced in a recent financial report that Metro Awakening (2024) “underperformed” financial expectations.
Developed by Embracer Group’s Vertigo Games, Metro Awakening brought the storied post-apocalyptic shooter franchise to VR for the first time, serving as the latest ‘AAA’ quality VR game to target all major headsets, including Quest 2 and above, SteamVR headsets, and PSVR 2.
Now, in an October – December 2024 financial report, the company detailed revenue generated by its various properties, which included Let’s Sing 2025, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1-2 Remastered, Goat Simulator Remastered, and Metro Awakening.
“Metro Awakening had a positive reception from critics, winning the Steam VR Game of the Year award, but underperformed management financial expectations,” the Embracer Group report states.
The company says revenue for Q3 2024 was led by those releases mentioned above, amounting to SEK 235 million (~$22 million USD), marking a decrease of -50% year-over-year for the same period in the year prior.
Still, it’s unclear what the expectations for Metro Awakening actually were, or how much revenue the game has generated to date. It is clear however Metro Awakening wasn’t the homerun hit the company was hoping for, having tapped VR veteran studio Vertigo Games to develop the IP, which was originally developed by sister company 4A Games.
As a VR-exclusive game, Metro Awakening has seen fairly positive user reviews across all supported platforms though. On both Quest and PSVR 2, it currently sits around a [4.5/5] user rating—on PSVR 2, it’s garnered over 1,700 reviews, while on Quest it has 1,100 at the time of this writing. It’s a slightly different story on Steam however, where it has a 74% user score from nearly 1,900 users, giving it a ‘Mostly Positive’ overall score.
In our launch day review, we noted Metro Awakening succeeded in capturing the gritty, post-apocalyptic atmosphere of the storied series in VR, bringing classics mechanics such as scavenging, sneaking, and shooting to the forefront. While visually intense, we found the game faltered somewhat with a lackluster story and a critical lack of gameplay variety. You can read more in our review of Metro Awakening here to find out why get gave it a solid [7.5/10].
