Scanner Sombre, the latest game from the British independent studio Introversion Software, was nowhere near as successful as their previous effort Prison Architect. Chris Delay and Mark Morris, the two founders of Introversion, comment on this failure in a YouTube video.
Scanner Sombre sold a mere 6,000 copies on Steam in two months, almost one year after the phenomenal success of Prison Architect saw its full release (August 2016, with 2 million copies sold).
"I kind of wrongly assumed that would just give us a minimum number of people looking at our game. So that numbers like that would be impossible", said Chris Delay. "Despite the absence of this expected boost, Scanner Sombre has somehow reached the top 10 games on Steam in its first day, hinting that few games are very popular on Valve's sales platform. Mark Morris explains that a game with revenue amounting to at least $50,000 gets directly on list of the top 15% selling games.
The video was also an opportunity for both developers to share their experience as an independent studio. They explain that developing a game less ambitious than Prison Architect was a deliberate decision. "The difference now is that we've got Prison Architect," Delay said, "which continues to do amazingly well even years after launch", explained Chris Delay. Thus they have the opportunity to make less conventional games. And then, as Mark Morris added: "If that's what drives you - to make yourself as rich as possible - you can get a job in the city. Go and be a management consultant." It's not just about the money for indies as you can see in this interesting video.
From our perspective as media we'd like to add that Introversion could have done a much better job building hype ahead of the release. In fact, we never even received a review copy in spite of applying for one through the suggested key distribution site. It should also be noted that few gamers are fans of studios as opposed to genres or franchises. With a new game that's got little to do with your previous success, it pays to let people in on the secret.
Thanks, GamesIndustry, for bringing this to our attention.