Amnesia scares up 200,000 sales

By Fred Dutton Published 7 January, 2011

"Incredible" tally proves PC exclusives work.

PC survival horror Amnesia: The Dark Descent has been purchased 200,000 times in the four months since launch - well above its creators' initial estimates.

A post on Frictional Games' blog read, "Summarising all sales since release actually puts us in a state that we never imagined being in.

"When counting all online sales as well as the Russian retail copies, we have now sold almost 200,000 units! This is a tremendous amount and more than we ever thought we would. Our 'dream estimates' before release was something around 100k, and to be able to double that feels insane.

"Note that more than half of these units have been sold at a discounted price (with as much has 75% of the price off)," the post continues, "so the total earnings are not as much as it first sounds. Still, we are in incredible good financial situation right now.

"Also, the daily sales are still quite high and the average has not dropped below 200 units yet. This means that we can still pay all daily costs from these sales alone, allowing us to invest the other earnings into the future"

The game deserved every sale. The tense indie horror won a frightfully impressive 8/10 from Eurogamer's Quintin Smith back in September and was voted the 38th best game of the year in our annual reader's poll.

The developer believes the success of the game is a sign that PC gaming is in fine health and proof that exclusives are viable on the platform.

"With these figures at hand, we must confess that it gives us new confidence for the PC. The sales that we have had (and are having) are more than enough to motivate developing a game with the PC as the main (and even only) platform.

"Based on what we have seen, the online PC market is just getting bigger and bigger, and we are convinced we are far from the end of this growth. We think that other developers that consider making their game exclusive to a console might want to think again."

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mrboshingles #1 1 year ago

    What are the three best things about Amnesia? 1. You can hide your own easter eggs 2. You meet a new person every day and
    3. You can hide your own easter eggs

  • HisDudness #2 1 year ago

    Nice one.

    So uhhh when's it coming to consoles? I kid. I kid...

  • Xardan #3 1 year ago

    In other news: underpants manufacturers sales increase by 33%.

  • Zaiz #4 1 year ago

    Keep in mind, Amnesia is an adorable little game from a not-colossal studio. So 200,000 sales is a lot.

  • teenlonewolf #5 1 year ago

    Good for them! that game deserves those sales

  • Ferral #6 1 year ago

    I picked this up in the Steam sale for about four and a half quid and have been playing through it gradually. Its not what you see what gets you, the sound and the effects make it tense then when the sanity model kicks in it becomes chilling if you have a decent set of headphones in. Its a REALLY decent game, I never played the Penumbra series and after this will have a look into them. This is where digital distribution actually helps get smaller developers recognised, its good to see them doing well from this title, they deserve it.
    Edited by Ferral at 07/01/11 @ 22:51

  • ChrisOTR #7 1 year ago

    Good for them! I bought it and I'm very glad I did.

    Having said that, I keep telling myself I'm too "busy" to go back and finish it. It's not that I'm scared, obviously. That would be stupid.

  • X3Entente #8 1 year ago

    are you listening capcom

  • darkos87 #9 1 year ago

    Amnesia got impressive sales because it's a good game and word of mouth still counts to certain extent. I bet if it had been released on XBLA it would have been even more successful however.

  • stoopidgreg #10 1 year ago

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRo0iT0q...

  • FutileResistor #11 1 year ago

    Thoroughly deserved. I'm delighted for them.

    If me telling everyone to 'BUY THIS GAME' in the steam christmas sales thread got them a few extra sales, I'm doubly happy.

    BUY THIS GAME!

  • bad09 #12 1 year ago

    I keep looking at this but have so much to be getting on with right now I passed on it, even in the Christmas sale. I will get round to it, probably will nab it in the spring Steam sale I should clear some of the backlog by then!

  • IneptPercy #13 1 year ago

    I have to say I won't be buying this, I downloaded the demo and it put me so on edge I just turn it off ever to be played again.

    Excellent horror game, just too much for me.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #14 1 year ago

    Tried the demo twice, didn't really get along with it. Probably my fault though, I guess I just was not in the mood for such a game because it really did everything right (and much better than many other games in this genre), I just never really felt the urge to buy it. Might pick it up when I have a bit more time on my hands.

  • Paul_cz #15 1 year ago

    It is pretty much the scariest horror game ever made, and I could not be happier that Frictional are financially safe.

    Gotta love digital distribution, where few guys can create amazing games and make money doing it.

  • trooper6 #16 1 year ago

    I bought it. Why? Because it had good reviews, and it was also available for Mac.

  • Spekingur #17 1 year ago

    Hey, amazing. Horror made successful with out trillion tons of gore!

    (Awesome game. I wish there was an Amnesia and a Minecraft lovechild out there.)

  • number3son #18 1 year ago

    It's great to hear that they're doing well. I must say though that 200,000 sounds disappointing to me personally, considering all the 'viral' attention the game has been getting from videos like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loSzpvq73FY. I think the real success is that Frictional managed to turn out such a great game at a very modest budget. But I really hope they manage to reach 500,000 eventually.

  • madjim #19 1 year ago

    They could do much better if they were also offering the game for consoles as well. Although I purchased it and it is excellent, I still haven't played it thoroughly because I prefer my living room large TV set and 5.1 sound setup in order to enjoy a game. And putting the PC in the living room isn't an option since I use it mostly for work. I think this one could do kick-ass sales in XBLA.

  • subedii #20 1 year ago

    @number3son:

    Don't let the sales numbers for big-budget AAA titles skew your perspective.

    This is and independently funded game, developed by a team of just five people. They had no major publisher backing them up, no big advertising campaign. They literally didn't have any real marketing campaign, this game was made known through gaming sites like RockPaperShotgun, and word of mouth.

    With all that, they managed to sell 200,000 copies in an extremely niche genre (you'll notice that these days, almost every "horror" title has either turned or is turning into an action game, giving the protagonist bigger guns and better means of defending themselves) on a platform people keep calling dead.

    Let me put that in perspective for you. They have earned enough money to fully fund the creation of their next title on their own, without publisher "help" (read their post to see why this is also a good thing), draw decent salaries, and have money left over to handle unexpected problems. That's about the best case scenario possible for them. Their break-even point where they'd be able to continue business was a long time ago, and their wildest and most ambitious projections for the game were that it would break the 100,000 in sales.

  • Bulbatron #21 1 year ago

    I must admit, I'd like to see this on XBLA, but even so, I thoroughly enjoyed Amnesia on the Mac. One of the best horror games ever.

  • Xardan #22 1 year ago

    Apparently they are considering a console port.

  • Lunastra78 #23 1 year ago

    This is my GOTY 2010. I'm glad Fricitional has made enough sales to continue making games!

  • 43n1m4 #24 1 year ago

    I really like this game and bought it on release, but I would've completed it by now if it'd been on my console - on XBLA for example. PC gaming is primarily MMO for me (EVE), while everything else, more or less, is on the console. So Amnesia will be bought , again, if they make a console port - and there really is no reason why the game shouldn't be on it eventually, as the controls should be rather easy to port to a controller. Anywho - Really good game, and a job well done to Frictional.

    Btw. the Penumbra games were really good as well, although combat felt out of place and there were quite a few bugs. But the creepy atmosphere that Amnesia benefits so greatly from, was present in those games as well.

  • Raiten #25 1 year ago

    While the numbers may seem small, the earnings they've made are much higher than had they sold 200k copies on ps3 or 360. But besides that since we're talking about pc game they've no fear of the sales stopping for a long long time anyway.

  • Svecke #26 1 year ago

    Couldn't have happened to a better developer. I'm looking forward to their next game, and a new opportunity to stain my pants.

  • FutileResistor #27 1 year ago

    Hopefully they will benefit from continued word of mouth and occasional spikes from steam discounts to enjoy a steady stream of sales for a few years yet.

  • tomkuryakin #28 1 year ago

    I downloaded the demo but sadly it wouldn't run on my laptop, so if this did come to consoles too then that would be great. I'd buy it.

  • Eraysor #29 1 year ago

    I bought it at full price and still haven't even got around to playing the game yet (though I did play the demo!)

  • RKOwned #30 1 year ago

    im asking a honest question here, is 200,000 great?

  • orangpelupa #31 1 year ago

    @RKO
    read subeddii comment above :D

    you need to see it in different perspective.
    this game have no "publisher" :) :)

    low budget
    profit go to small number of human in dev.

  • Freek #32 1 year ago

    This is also the reason big publishers don't do games like these: they sell 200.000 copies.
    That's not enough to fund a big budget 60 dollar release, it would be considered a gigantic flop.

  • DjWhizzkidd #33 1 year ago

    Bought this yesterday after all I have heard about it.

    Scariest game I ever played. I actually make noises whilst Im playing this. It gives me shivers.

    Incredible stuff.

  • Lexx87 #34 1 year ago

    Freek this isn't a big major release though is it? It didn't have the budget of one of those games and was much cheaper to make. So 200,000 sales for the cost of the game is pretty decent.

    Or is the world just black and white for you?

  • Yossarian #35 1 year ago

    I can't even imagine how a console version would work given the way the mouse controls are used in this.

  • BabyJesus #36 1 year ago

    @Yoss Move possibly?

  • azz0rWuggawoo #37 1 year ago

    Too expensive.

    If it was £8 or less I'd consider it.

  • DjWhizzkidd #38 1 year ago

    @Wugawoo I really hope that's sarcastic

  • Toxicity8 #39 1 year ago

    Word of mouth sales ftw! Brilliant game

  • jackdoe #40 1 year ago

    Not bad. It proves that low budget PC exclusives work, but I'm not sure if it proves that big budget PC exclusives work. Star Craft II proved that.

  • medicineboy #41 1 year ago

    Let's hope this kind of coverage gives the game and studio more coverage and sales.

  • subedii #42 1 year ago

    @Freek:

    Dude, that's not a condemnation of this game's sales numbers, it's a condemnation of the publisher model, and it's precisely why Frictional Games being able to self fund their next game completely is such a huge deal for them.

    This precise topic actually cropped up in the Amnesia thread over ate NeoGaf where they were discussing these numbers. Prompted a pretty good thread that should give you an idea of just how damaging going the publisher route can be for an indie:

    [link url=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=418109
    ]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.p...[/link]

    The way Ubisoft behaved there was terrible. But the key thing is, it's not an exception. You see the exact same thing in the Record Industry:

    [link url=http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml
    ]http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2010071...[/link]


    The long and the short of it is that the publisher issues an advance recoupable against profits that the developer makes from the game. However, they also take a massive percentage of the per unit sales as well. Cost repayment doesn't come directly from those sales, it's taken from the meagre percentage "profit" royalties that the devs are owed.

    The upshot of all this is that where the developer will often lose money on even a big seller of a title, the publisher is still making a huge profit, and the devs won't be paid a single penny until their "advance" is fully recouped. Which takes GIGANTIC sales numbers to achieve. This doesn't matter to the publisher, they've already made back their investment and then some. Which is why a publisher like Ubisoft can happily do what they did to Outerlight and it doesn't matter, they've still made their money, even if Outerlight didn't.

    You say no publisher would touch those numbers? I say if they had signed up with a publisher they'd probably be bankrupt right now or close to it, because the publisher's going to get the majority of that money. If you read their blog post on this, they very directly state as much, so I'm going to end with that:


    There is another really important thing that needs to be taken into account: If we have had a publisher and sold according to current figures, we would not be in the state that we are in now. More likely, we would now be something more like our first sales summary post. We would probably just have paid back our advance, and just recently been receiving royalties (at a much lower rate, like 25% of what we get now). This means that we would probably be looking for a new publishing deal at this point instead of having the freedom we now have. This does not mean that publishers are evil, just that one should think carefully before signing up for anything. Releasing a game without any financial backing or help with marketing is quite a struggle, but if you pull it off it is well worth the effort!
    Edited by subedii at 10/01/11 @ 10:01

  • JJrabbit #43 1 year ago

    Not that I can add much to the praise already given, but the game is awesome! Very well done, nice atmosphere and great level mechanics.

  • Spekingur #44 1 year ago

    @subedii: The same publishing problems happened with CCP when Eve Online was first released. When Eve got released it came apparent that the publisher had no interest in the game. They probably dismissed it as a 'small time MMO that will never see success' because CCP was solely based in Iceland at that time. Look at CCP now. They had to work their way out of this publisher ordeal, got their publishing rights back and are now doing better than many other MMO companies.

  • EmiliasHorse #45 1 year ago

    I downloaded the demo from Steam after reading this article and can honestly say it took me by suprise. I played late at night in the dark with heaphones on and when my West Highland Terrier nuzzled my leg I jumped out of my skin.

  • IneptPercy #46 1 year ago

    "I can't even imagine how a console version would work given the way the mouse controls are used in this. "

    To my shame I will admit I played on my 360 controller, worked just fine I will add.