The pixel-style simulation game “Spirittea” developed by the overseas game team Cheesemaster Games was released in mid-November. Although the Steam platform did not receive much attention, the game earned the development team US$1 million in revenue within one week of its release. Among them, a person from the publisher No More Robots shared that the sales figures behind this game are very different from what the public players think.
“Spirittea” is a business simulation game in which players play the protagonist who builds a hot spring bathhouse for monsters. The background story is deeply influenced by “The Hidden Girl” and “Natsume’s Book of Friends”.
This game received a lot of media attention before its release. However, after the game was launched on November 13, it was not promoted as a popular new game on Steam. At the same time, a small number of players criticized the game’s lack of guidance, but overall it was highly praised. .
Different from the lackluster market on Steam, “Spirittea” is really popular on Nintendo Switch and Xbox Game Pass.
According to Mike Rose, manager of publisher No More Robots, “Spirittea” earned US$1 million in revenue in the first week of its release. On the first day of release, more than 150,000 players played it across platforms. It has also become the most popular game in various eShop regions. Top seller.
It’s been a *fascinating* launch, due to where the game has been most successful
Usually we do very well on Steam, then the console versions catch up in the months afterwards
For Spirittea, Steam was our weakest platform, with Xbox and Switch accounting for 80% of the revenue!
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) November 20, 2023
It is worth mentioning that Steam is the platform with the lowest sales source of “Spirittea”, and Switch and Xbox account for 80% of the revenue.
Mike Rose explained that it is probably because of Steam’s page changes in recent years that its algorithm easily recommends 3A masterpieces to the homepage. This has led to more 3A game publishers increasing their promotional efforts on Steam, and has also indirectly caused smaller-scale games to be promoted. Photo opportunities for indie games.
More importantly, this game was not promoted by live streamers or tried by other YouTubers, but the game was still a success, earning 3 times the game development fee in the first week.
Anyway, that’s about it! Strong Switch sales, great Game Pass deal, immediately profitable, and the future is secured for the game, which means it’ll get updated for a long time to come.
Thanks to everyone who picked it up, hope you’re enjoying it!! pic.twitter.com/gfV4pOxosd
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) November 20, 2023
Of course, the example of “Spirittea” may be another case of survivorship bias in the game industry, but it points out that for small-scale games to succeed, they must not only have luck, but more importantly, the quality of the game itself needs to be Players agree, otherwise no matter what platform recommendation function it is, it will have no effect.
The pixel-style simulation game “Spirittea” has been released on November 13th on PC, Switch, Xbox and other platforms. Interested players can add it to their wish list to follow.
