Dead Cells, one of the best metroidvania games, has gone platinum. The fact that its sales exceeded one million copies, its lead designer Sébastien Bénard, announced at the Game Developers Conference 2019 event. Developers from the French Motion Twin also talked about the division of sales by platform and the significance of the success of the project for the studio.
60% of copies were sold on PC. This is not surprising: during the first thirteen months (from May 10, 2017 to August 7, 2018), the game was only available on Steam through the early access program. It was previously reported that in the first year, sales amounted to approximately 730 thousand copies, and by the time version 1.0 was released, they had exceeded 850 thousand units.
Interestingly, among the consoles, the Nintendo Switch turned out to be the leader, although it appeared on the hybrid system simultaneously with the release of versions for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. At the same time, this option diverges so quickly that, as the creators suggest, someday it will outstrip the computer one. Dead Cells was included in the list of the ten best-selling games of the Big N platform, published last week. Destructoid has previously noted that the Switch version outsells the PS4 version by four times.
According to Studio Marketing Manager Steve Philby (Steve Philby), the initial price of the game was quite high for indie projects. The developers were confident that it was worth the money, and also understood that over time they would have to make discounts. “We gave Dead Cells everything we had,” he said. - If you like it and want to support us, then please buy it at full price. This will allow us to keep making games."
Benard said that Dead Cells was the studio's "last chance" - its commercial success saved it from closure. Previously, Motion Twin worked on small shareware projects, including for mobile devices, and it did "not too well". Roglaike has become the most ambitious game the developers have ever made, and the resources invested in it have paid off.
In the past, the authors have described Dead Cells as a risky project, a "dream game" that could destroy the studio if it failed. They wanted to create "something hardcore, ultra-niche, with pixel art graphics" that the mainstream player might not like. The creators did not turn to gamers for funding and launched the game in early access in order to collect as much feedback as possible, bring all the gameplay systems to perfection and increase the chances of success.
Dead Cells has won numerous awards, including "Best Indie Game" at the Golden Joystick Awards and "Best Action Game" at The Game Awards. She has an average Metacritic rating of 87-91 out of 100, depending on the platform.
During its stay in Early Access, Dead Cells has changed a lot - this applies not only to content and mechanics, but also to game balance. Developers continue to support it with updates. On March 28, the PC version will receive the Rise of the Giants add-on with a new location, enemies, weapons, costumes and other content. It will appear on consoles later, but this will also happen in the spring.
Source: 3dnews.ru