Star Wars Zero Firm is estimated to have offered 1 million copies, with the vast majority of these gross sales coming from Steam.
Alinea Analytics’ Rhys Elliott took to social media to debate the efficiency of Bit Reactor’s Star Wars technique recreation, which was developed by former builders of XCOM at Firaxis.
69.9% of these 1 million gross sales got here from Steam, with 19.9% on PlayStation, and 10.2% on Xbox / Xbox PC. Clearly, Steam is the place it’s at for Zero Firm, which Elliott estimates has generated round $50 million since final month’s launch.
This efficiency, Elliott stated, is “respectable for this style and through such a crowded interval (even with the Star Wars model hooked up).”
However does it meet writer EA’s expectations? The corporate has but to challenge official gross sales figures for Zero Firm or touch upon its industrial efficiency. Now EA has gone personal, it’s beneath no obligation to share income figures with the market, so it’s unlikely we’ll discover out.
What we do know is that Bit Reactor furloughed “lots of its staff” earlier than Zero Firm even got here out because it reportedly had “run out of most of its cash simply forward of the launch of its first recreation.” Bit Reactor instructed Sport File it was a “troublesome resolution” made “earlier than it was clear how the launch would go,” insisting it was not influenced by EA or Star Wars rights holder Disney. Sport File reported that 80% of Bit Reactor’s workers have been furloughed, leaving a skeleton crew to handle any post-launch bugs for Zero Firm.
“It is SO GOOD, however it’s area of interest,” Elliott added. “One factor limiting Zero Firm’s gross sales, as with many Star Wars video games, is that it’s solely actually fashionable within the West. Of Zero Firm’s gamers, 90% are in North America or Europe, with beneath 5% in Asia.
“On Steam, the Chinese language consumer opinions sit at 57% optimistic (versus an 82% international common), with many pointing to the dearth of VO and localisation choices. Star Wars has by no means had the pull in Asia that it has within the West, after all. However skipping correct localisation compounds that.”
What occurs subsequent? The most recent Zero Firm patch was launched on September 10, however we haven’t heard from the studio since.
IGN’s Star Wars Zero Firm evaluate returned a 9/10. We stated: “Star Wars Zero Firm is a wonderful tactical recreation that does a improbable job of slathering on the identical cinematic feel and appear we noticed in Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi video games, incorporating robust characters and a storyline that is refreshingly centered on non-Pressure customers and a non-traditional villain.”