We are currently awash in a sea of new IP hits, from Crimson Desert to Pragmata to now, Windrose, the pirate survival game. And that has just hit a huge milestone.
Windrose has not just increased its player count on Steam over the course of its first week, it has seen it skyrocket. As of last night, Windrose put up 222,134 concurrent players on Steam, which is more than triple its launch at 69,444 concurrents on April 14. So not even a week ago, yet.
Reception has been excellent. Given its ongoing nature, there aren’t enough scored reviews in for a Metacritic figure, but on Steam, the game is at 89% “very positive” scores, which is more than enough to satisfy any developer (Steam is its only platform, as well). Another thing developers love…selling 1 million copies, a milestone that Windrose hit yesterday at its $26 price point. That’s double its initial 500,000 announcement in just a few days.
Like many games of this genre, Windrose is launching in “early access,” with more and more to be added in time. Though at this point, that badge often doesn’t mean all that much. Here’s the synopsis of the game if you’re curious:
“Embark on a PvE survival adventure in the Age of Piracy. Fight on land and sea, solo or with friends. Build, craft and explore vast open world filled with dark secrets. Master soulslite combat and take on challenging bosses, command your ship and plunder unspoken treasures!”
And its trailer:
You’ll notice the “PvE” there, as in the survival genre that’s less common than more, as most of these games usually have some PvP element. Here, this being a pirate game where you could imagine there would be PvP ship battles or other Sea of Thieves-style combat, everyone is just teaming up on the servers to take on tough enemies like…boars. Seriously, don’t mess with the boars.
Many are pointing to the success of this game, and the aforementioned Crimson Desert and Pragmata, that gamers are thirsting for quality new IPs that are not rehashed sequels, but also ones that aren’t necessarily single player in Windrose’s case, but steer away from PvP. We’ve seen declines in that genre or plenty of flat-out flops, but it is relatively easy to connect the dots here on why these titles are resonating with gamers more than others, especially over the past year or so.
Windrose may not have hit its ceiling yet, and we’ll have to check out its second weekend to see how much it may continue to spread among players roping in their friends to show up. This has personally happened to me, but I am too tied up in my 300th hour of Crimson Desert, certainly a good use of time. But I’ll try it soon.
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