Frictional Games must be pleased with the early SOMA sales figures.
In the grand scheme of the early SOMA sales figures – and it’s 92,000 units – the new title sits between critical success Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which sold 20K in its first week, and the less critically appreciated Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, which sold around 120K in week one.
It’s perhaps a good lesson in sales momentum for developers and publishers.
SOMA is generally considered a superior game to Machine For Pigs, and had it followed the fairly universally loved Dark Descent then the SOMA sales figures may have been even better still; but perhaps because Machine For Pigs was not the critical success they hoped, enthusiasm for purchasing SOMA before reviews landed may have been diminished.
There’s little doubt that SOMA sales will outstrip Machine For Pigs in due course, but a little bit of pre-order/early sales shyness was perhaps to be expected after the variable quality of that difficult second album.
Anyway, back to the release and reception.
Based on the early SOMA sales (at the opening price of $29.99 US) this puts the gross receipts for SOMA sales at a shade over two-and-three-quarter million dollars. Which doesn’t sound bad for ten days, but the crew over at Frictional Games reckon they’ll need to shift three times that before SOMA has even paid for itself.
The important thing is, the early SOMA sales look like they’re going to give Frictional Games the cash-flow they need to go on making interesting games, bringing off-kilter indie values to the masses with AAA production, and that’s really important. They certainly must be doing something right, if they’re getting glowing reviews like these:
Head over to the SOMA site, to see where you can pick up your copy.