We don’t hear often about Aussie games breaching the high 6 figures or the millions, so every time one does, it’s a little cause for celebration.
The Sydney-based studio behind Moving Out, SMG Studio, announced the game’s success amidst the hustle and bustle of Gamescom last week. The sales are digital only, meaning that it doesn’t include any success Moving Out might have had at retail. It also doesn’t include any figures from Moving Out‘s inclusion on Xbox Game Pass, although the developers noted that across those platforms “the number of people who have paid to play the game is also much higher”.
With platforms like Game Pass, Luna, Epic Games Store, Humble Choice & others the number of people who have paid to play the game is also much higher.
So proud of 500k. Gives us motivation for next games to exceed this.
Not sure my motivation could handle selling 5M copies ????
— SMG is hiring! (@smgstudio) August 25, 2021
It’s always a great local achievement when an Aussie game reaches such highs: it’s why we’ve covered Hollow Knight‘s success, the breakthroughs of Untitled Goose Game, or games like Forts surpassing the 100,000 mark. And while I’m sure many, many more local games have enjoyed substantial successes of their own, it’s worth remembering that these figures aren’t publicly accessible, so we’re reliant on the developers or publishers being open about their sales. (It’s worth adding that there’s always a chance to hear more about local successes at GCAP, where developers often share information and expertise amongst each other, but that won’t be until early October.)
I reached out to the studio for more information on Moving Out‘s success across platforms, but hadn’t heard back at the time of writing. The studio had previously gone on record about the importance of the Switch to indie games like theirs. Death Squared, a co-op puzzler game from SMG, had sold more games on the Switch across three days than it had across every other platform combined.
What I’d really love to see is the difference or impact something like Xbox Game Pass makes in these kinds of contracts. (If you have more info about how that works, please get in touch!) But for today, it’s just nice to close off August by noting another big Aussie success. And if you’re another local studio who has had big sales numbers of your own, let us know!
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