Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent is an interesting story in the world of gaming. Released two years ago, the game features mediocre graphics and a first-person perspective, but is not a first-person shooter. Instead, the title is a classic survival horror game, in which players are forced to wade into a creepy mansion with little but a lantern. A lantern that can run out of oil. The game became an indie hit, scaring* (*NSFW language, and watch your ears) gamers the world over.
This week, Frictional Games posted a report to its blog on how the game and the company have progressed since the release of Amnesia. It turns out that, in their estimation, the game has sold somewhere around one million copies. The actual sales of the game, including sales from being in the Humble Indie Bundle and Potato Bundle, top 1.36 million. The company rounds that number down, though, conceding that those who bought Amnesia through a bundle were already likely to own it.
The post goes on to say that Amnesia is still selling over 10,000 copies per month – more than enough to support the company. Frictional also reveals how much Amnesia cost to make:
I think we have never disclosed how much we Amnesia cost to make, so might as well do that here. The (exactly) three years of development cost a total of 360 000 US Dollars. It has since earned more than ten times that. Take that investors we talked to in 2009!
The sequel to Amnesia is currently being produced by Frictional and developed by thechineseroom. Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, has an expected release date of “early 2013.”
Apart from that, Frictional used its update to tease a “new super secret project” that it stated will be a first-person horror game. From the post:
One of the things I was most disappointed with in Amnesia was that it never really managed to deliver any deeper themes, but was more like a shallow fright-fest. For the new project we want to change that and really try and bring a certain theme to the front. Our hope is that this will create a very special experience, creating horror in a much more disturbing way.
More disturbing than Amnesia? That’s a terrifying thought. However, if Amnesia has taught us anything, its that classic survival horror is not dead as a genre, and gamers are still looking for a good scare.