Valkyrae Doesn’t Believe That ‘Among Us Is Dead’
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Phasmophobia, Among Us. What do all of these indie favourites have in common? As well as being a trio of terrific titles that soared to the top of Twitch and Steam in 2020, all of the above are plagued by continued critiques that they're dead games. While their loyal fans and still impressive player counts might argue the contrary, that hasn't stopped them being continuously dubbed as "dead" games. Still fighting for Among Us, Rachell "Valkyrae" Hofstetter refuses to believe the game is dead.
Want a breakdown of all the Among Us Characters? Make sure you check out our guide.
In particular, Among Us' journey has been a weird and wonderful one that started back in 2018. InnerSloth's social deduction game may have flown under the radar following its original release, but in this midst of the global pandemic, Among Us started its astronomical rise thanks to some of Twitch's biggest names jumping in for a round of this murder mystery. Although American streamer Chance "Sodapoppin" Morris is credited as the "first" to popularise the game last year, it soon became to the go-to game for the likes of Valkyrae, Felix "xQc" Lengyel, Imane "Pokimane" Anys, Michael "shroud" Grzesiek, and more.
Why does Valkyrae say Among Us isn't a dead game?
Discussing Among Us' rise and potential fall, Valkyrae told The CouRage and Nadeshot Show, "Surprisingly people are still enjoying it. There’s still views for it on YouTube. I definitely have the most viewers when I play Among Us on YouTube and the videos do really well".
Explaining why Among Us is still doing well, Valkyrae continued, "People still really enjoy it, not so much the game itself but the way people interact with each other". However, not everything is perfect though. Tackling accusations of burnout and what InnerSloth could do to improve Among Us, Valkyrae concluded, "I personally am not burned out, I just wish they would add more content faster. They have a new map coming, It’s taking a very long time...I feel like they’re missing out on this wave of popularity by taking this long".
It's true that there's the new Airship map on the way, but to say it's been taking a while would be putting it politely. Airship was first announced at October's Game Awards, with a loose release date of "early 2021". We're now in early 2021 and the wait continues.
Is Valkyrae right about Among Us not being a dead game?
Only recently, we saw Among Us defy expectations and sell a whopping 3 million copies on Nintendo Switch during its first month's release on the console. With a highly anticipated release for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S at some point in 2021, it's clear InnerSloth has plans to keep Among Us ticking. That being said, it's not hard to see the frustrations of players and Valkyrae's point about things taking too long. The last map update was Polus in November 2019, meaning we've already waited a long time for something new.
It's also important to remember InnerSloth overhauled its plans for Among Us 2 and doubled down on its efforts to make the first game the best it could be. Among Us 2 may have been cancelled, but that hasn't stopped the OG continuing to chug along. The problem is, the development team at InnerSloth is notoriously small. Although it's made the game's meteoric rise all the more impressive, it's led to some sluggish timeframes. Gamers have already been arguing about what constitutes a dead game, and if Among Us wants to avoid falling into this category, maybe it should get its skates on with development?
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