FDG Entertainment, a publisher of various indie titles for home consoles and PC, announced via a tweet that within three months the Nintendo Switch version of Blossom Tales from developer Castle Pixel managed to accrue revenue 20 times more than what the lifetime sales were on Steam.
The news came courtesy of a tweet from FDG on March 16th, 2018.
#NintendoSwitch community is a blessing! #BlossomTales is now a turnaround story: Humble indie dev @castlepixel can stay in business and continue making games. Love y’all! 3 months #Switch revenues surpass #Steam lifetime revenues 20 times! pic.twitter.com/GxO88Zor12
— FDG Entertainment (@FDG_Games) March 16, 2018
While this might sound like a lot of units and seeing that a game has managed to sell to surpass the Steam revenue by 20 times sounds like a game like Blossom Tales is a huge seller, the reality is that the Steam sales are pretty paltry.
According to Steam Spy, Blossom Tales on Steam only managed to move 3,000 units. So selling enough units to garner 20 times more than the Steam sales isn’t too impressive.
Then again, they do mention that the Switch managed to do 20 times more within three months than what Steam has done since March, 2017.
It does show that indie games on the Switch seem to have legs, likely because there’s still a dearth of titles on the system. When a new title drops it doesn’t have a hundred other crappy games surrounding its release to bury it under a truckload of shovelware the way it happens when new indie titles drop on Steam.
These days you need a lot of media support, a good pair of knee pads and friends working at Kotaku, or a strong marketing campaign if you want your game to stand out on Steam.
Right now the sales for indie titles on the Switch are basically like the glory days of Steam back between 2010 and 2014. I’m curious how long the bubble will stay afloat for new games like Blossom Tales to find success on the Switch before it pops.
