“The future is uncertain, let’s put it that way.”
Image credit: Thekla
Braid: Anniversary Edition has “sold like dog shit”, according to its creator Jonathan Blow.
Blow regularly streams on Twitch and has discussed the sales performance of the Braid re-release on a number of occasions since its release in May.
YouTube channel Blow Fan has pieced together a montage of clips from Blow’s streams (spotted by VGC), in which he bluntly shares his thoughts on the sales of Braid: Anniversary Edition.
On 20th May, six days after the game’s launch, Blow stated it was “a little too early” to see the game’s performance, specifically the downward curve of sales after release. He also noted events like the Summer Sale can be a major contributor post-launch.
“It’s not like we sold a million copies day one or whatever, which is what you expect. It’s a remaster, so you don’t expect it to be like a new game in terms of the hype level. But we just have to see where it lands,” said Blow.
Then, on 17th June (34 days after launch), Blow stated the game had “sold horribly”. “It depends on what your standards are,” he said. “It’s sold well if you compare it to nostalgic things like the Jeff Minter game that’s on Steam or Atari 50. It’s sold much better than all of those but it still has sold like dog shit compared to what we need to make for the company to survive.
“The future is uncertain, let’s put it that way,” he concluded. “It hasn’t been good.”
Blow reiterated sales have “been utterly terrible” on 21st July and then again on 22nd July, adding on the latter that console platforms “are dead now” with Steam as the game’s biggest platform.
Referring to commentary added in the Anniversary Edition, Blow said: “At some point, you just have to know that what you did was a good thing even if the world doesn’t really acknowledge it and this is one of those cases I think.”
He then stated the likes of cons and events, as well as most YouTube interviews and podcasts, aren’t useful for promotion.
Finally, on 27th July, Blow noted the “whole industry is having a hard time” and then, when asked how many of his development team are working on the compiler for programming language Jai, Blow replied: “None, because we can’t afford to pay anyone because the sales are bad.”
Braid: Anniversary Edition launched in May and adds 40 new levels, as well as over 15 hours of commentary.
The indie puzzle-platform game was first released on Xbox 360 in 2008 and quickly became a critical darling.
