Summary
Japanese developer Hytacka, reported to have worked onDark Souls 3by Automaton, has been surprisingly candid about the performance of his recent indie soulslike Rise of Rebellion (thanks,Automaton West).
Rise of Rebellion was released on April 21 and currently holds a “Mixed” review score on Steam after127 reviews. A low number of reviews combined with a low review score is never a good look, and unfortunately, the commercial results for Rise of Rebellion are as you might’ve predicted after seeing this metric.
Below Expectations
In a video on Hytacka’spersonal YouTube channel, the developer opened up about the performance of Rise of Rebellion. “The results are not good,” he said. “In terms of what my goal was, I would say it bombed completely.”
He doesn’t give a specific number, but does point to an oft-used metric for approximating sales, which involves taking the number of reviews for a game and multiplying it by 30. Using this metric, we can guess that Rise of Rebellion sold around 4000 copies. Hytacka had been aiming for around 100,000, but that goal seems near impossible to achieve now.
Rise of Rebellion was published by the Japanese conglomerate Kodansha, which primarily publishes books and manga. Hytacka is worried the poor performance of Rise of Rebellion is going to strain the relationship with Kodansha, and he expects less publisher support going forward as a result. “Honestly, it’ll probably be a while before I get to a point where I have something to show,” Hytacka comments. The developer intends to stay active, and insists he hasn’t lost his ambition.
The combat in Rise of Rebellion looks entertaining and fast-paced, the animations are fluid, and the characters seem to slide around like they’re skating on ice. However, the environments and assorted assets seem to convey a generic fantasy setting, but not one that’s immediately intriguing or interesting. The creature design is similarly uninteresting, as the trailers depict the protagonist fighting standard knights and trolls.
The YouTube comments on Hytacka’s video (machine translated using Google) appear to be quite negative, criticising the developer for giving up on the game so soon after release.
