A Way Out seems like a tough sell. The cooperative narrative game, which requires you to play the whole thing alongside a second person, probably isn’t for everyone. But it sure was for a lot of people – more than EA seems to have expected.
This morning, developer Hazelight Studios announced that it had sold a million copies of A Way Out, which is a noteworthy number not just because it’s big, but because it’s more than EA thought it would sell in a lifetime, according to the marketing document that leaked last year. You may recall this as the marketing plan that said the company would “need to watch out for controversy” surrounding A Way Out director Josef Fares.
EA’s forecast, at least when it made that plan, was that A Way Out would sell 203,000 copies in the 2018 fiscal year (which ended March 31, eight days after the game came out) and 894,000 copies total.
In other words, A Way Out just sold more copies in two weeks than EA had projected it to sell in a lifetime. While it’s possible that EA’s projections changed between the time that this plan leaked and release, this is still fascinating, and shows just how successful the game was. It’s a promising sign for any game developer who’s thinking about an ambitious narrative experiment such as this one.
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6 responses to “A Way Out Sold More In Two Weeks Than EA Apparently Thought It’d Sell Total”
I thought linear narrative heavy games were dead? haha
Only if you listen to Microsoft.
I can imagine the confusion in the EA board room.
“What’s going on, it sold over a million copies?! But it had one of those story things and didn’t have a single microtransaction, it doesn’t make any sense!!”
“And it was CoOp. No one plays coop anymore. I think we are being trolled, guys!”
Not 5 million? Clearly it’s a failure of the highest order then 😀
ikr? this GAME is not doing them a SERVICE.
Have been trying to hunt down a physical copy since release, but no one has one. Was starting to think it was a digital only release.
“What do you mean people *want* to play co op games? Those are for kids????”