Frostpunk sells like hot soup, shifting 250,000 copies in 66 hours
Ice one!
Frozen city-building game Frostpunk, the newest by This War of Mine developer 11 bit Studios, has raced out of the gates, shifting a quarter of a million copies in 66 hours.
What this all means, besides being a lovely success for a lovely game (my review should be appearing very soon), is absolute concrete confirmation of ongoing support for the game from 11 bit. "Yes, we had plans for expansions," CEO Grzegorz Miechowski said in a statement, "and now we're 100 per cent sure we are doing that, including many free updates of course!"
Presumably those plans cover new scenarios for the game. Currently there's a main campaign, which lasts around a dozen hours (providing you don't die all the time), and two additional scenarios, which are smaller in scale but harder to overcome. They're more focused, you see, and limit you in pivotal areas, meaning you will really struggle if you put a foot wrong.
The scenarios also introduce their own themes and unique buildings. In the Ark scenario you protect the last seeds on Earth from the extreme - and worsening - cold. If you let the arks, which are unique to the scenario, get too cold, you fail.
Likewise, in the Refugee scenario, you can build a unique Guarded Outpost to guard your borders, and forcefully select who enters and who does not. This becomes essential when you are overrun with people wanting refuge in your severely stretched settlement, particularly when it comes to turning away the oppressive rich lords you ran from.
It'll be interesting to see what new scenarios 11 bit Studios can dream up. There are certainly many other interesting situations Frostpunk could put you in. And I wonder, if 11 bit Studios takes things a step further - and I sincerely hope it does - whether we could see new law paths to follow and perhaps deeper civilisation mechanics bedded in. It's exciting!
Frostpunk is £25 and out now on Steam.