This is my only comment on this topic and I just want to add a few things:
Hi-Fi Rush is a good game, though slightly overrated
Stray is a good game scored appropriately
Now that I got that out, here's some information. Below are the numbers from steamdb on both games:
Hi-Fi Rush
Stray
Even if we ignore the sales figures on the right-hand side of each, which is perfectly acceptable since they are estimates, in terms of commercial success Stray absolutely destroys Hi-Fi Rush. It's a no-contest knockout with a fatality.
It's perfectly fine to say Hi-Fi Rush was a great game that did not pull the expected numbers. Yes, 2M is a lot, but when the likelyhood is that most of those 2M didn't actually pay for the game, and the attach rate on a subscription is < 10%... There are zero arguments for this game being a commercial success.
I'd love for Xbox apologists to wake up and try to understand why this happens and its implications in future XGS games.
Anyway, I'm out of this topic.
Game, Set and Match.
Great post.