The CEO of New Blood Interactive, Dave Oshry, believes that the term "immersive sim" is not ideal for promoting games. In his opinion, developers would benefit from using more familiar genre labels that resonate with a broader audience, such as RPG or stealth.
Gloomwood
Oshry shared these thoughts with PC Gamer, discussing the marketing strategies for Gloomwood and Fallen Aces, for which New Blood is the publisher.
Immersive sims are games where players can solve problems in various ways by interacting with game systems. Classic examples of this genre include Deus Ex, System Shock, and Thief.
According to Oshry, the issue is that the term is mostly understood by fans of the genre. Other players either do not know its meaning or mistakenly perceive such projects as simulators.
The developer noted that Deus Ex and System Shock were primarily regarded as RPGs in their time, while Thief was viewed as a stealth game. He also cited Baldur’s Gate 3, which, in his opinion, has many features of immersive sims but is marketed as a role-playing game.
In promoting Gloomwood, New Blood initially used the phrase "Thief with guns." According to Oshry, this helped attract attention but also set very specific expectations among Thief fans. Therefore, the company now prefers to use broader genre definitions.
For comparison, Oshry mentioned the term "boomer shooter." According to him, the audience immediately understands that it refers to shooters in the style of Doom and Quake.
A similar position was previously expressed by Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio. He shared that during the promotion of Prey, the team spent a lot of time explaining the concept of "immersive sim" to potential buyers. In Colantonio’s view, using familiar genre labels would have allowed them to focus more on the unique features of the game.