The Blood of Dawnwalker Devs Say “Sales Are Secondary” and Designing a Game for Sales Will Make It Fail
For almost every game developer, the measure of whether a game is considered a success is dependent on its sales numbers, which is understandable since both the publisher and developer want to recoup their investment and earn enough to fund their next project.
Having said that, we’ve reached a point in gaming wherein most games seem like they were built to maximize profit and revenue, or maybe push the post-release expansion or DLC pack to further drive up revenue.
That’s why it’s refreshing to hear The Blood of Dawnwalker developer Rebel Wolves state that sales isn’t their priority for their debut action-RPG IP.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Studio Prefers to Measure the Game From the Opinion of Fans
In a video interview, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz (Game Director) and Adam Payet (Environment Artist) talked about sales targets for Dawnwalker. While no exact figure was given, the developers did shed light on their target and ambition for the title.
When asked whether there is a specific target the studio needs to hit in order to guarantee a sequel — something the studio confirmed they are already planning — or if it’s already a sure thing regardless of the sales numbers, Tomaszkiewicz gave a very candid response.
(Editor’s Note: Text was transcribed from the video manually, but the devs’ Polish accent made some words a bit harder to understand, and we’ve only included the parts we are sure of).
The game’s director said, “First of all, we are not thinking this way; it’s a different way of thinking because we are artists, and all of us, the funders of the company, are the guys who are doing the developer jobs. I am the game director; my brother is the creative director, we have a guy that’s responsible for the art, the narration and so on. Since we don’t want to measure our games in millions of sales…I mean, you need to have money, of course, to create the next part, but we want to create those challenges in front of us and the goals this way to fulfill our artistic and creative need.”
“I would prefer to measure the game from the opinion of fans and this energy when they like the game, And if it’s possible, maybe some awards, which will be excellent for us as artists. Not in the sales, because sales are secondary; I believe that if the game is good, there will be (the) sales. But if you’re thinking about the sales, when you create the game and you try to design the game to achieve sales, it will fail,” Tomaszkiewicz added.
I can’t say I disagree with the game’s director on this one, and it’s refreshing to hear a dev working on a triple-A project focus on the game first, and the sales second.
In related news about the game, we got confirmation that it won’t feature Denuvo, and it also won’t feature minigames. Players can expect multiple epilogues, and these choices will carry into the planned sequels.
The Blood of Dawnwalker will be released on September 3 on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and Rebel Wolves has confirmed they are already planning “smaller, free” DLCs post-launch.
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