Generally, I am against the trend of bigger game companies releasing absurd narrative-heavy games on April Fools. I think it pollutes the mainstream concept of what narrative games can be by saying forthright: "this dating sim is a joke, have it for free." I think it's bad that this trend perpetuates this idea that if a game's primary focus is reading, it is worth less or even worth nothing.
But in the same breath, I want to be happy that there's any space at all in this niche for A.) Big companies to treat their characters and fiction with reckless, playful abandon, and B.) Small teams or freelancers to get paid to make such unusual games.
There's an argument that, Sega "surprising" their audience by shrieking "SONIC IS DEAD, WHAT HAPPENED? FIND OUT FOR FREE!" for all of 24 hours will bring in a portion of folks who would never interact with a narrative-heavy detective adventure game otherwise. I have little interest in playing it myself, but I imagine the number of Sonic Murder Game players who will go on to purchase another similar detective adventure game is greater than zero. But that group of players is leagues smaller than the digital passersby that see that kind of game costing $0.00 and walk on by.
The optimist in me wants to see the positive side of games like this being approachable and delighting unsuspecting players. The pessimist in me feels like the endeavor pollutes the craft of game writing.
