Besides The Witness , Firewatch is probably the most celebrated indie game of the year so far; certainly one of the most talked about. Campo Santo took a big risk by putting its heart and resources into a game that it knew wouldn’t be for everyone. The story is dramatic, character-driven, and pretty sad. On top of that, the PS4 version of Firewatch was almost unplayable when it released; framerates were inconsistent and pretty much any quick movement made the game slow to a crawl. Camp Santo was quick to call on Unity and Sony to come together and come up with a solution.
The dedication and passion of this little indie developer has paid off, and Firewatch has officially sold over half a million copies. A blog post on publisher Panic’s website details just what the success of Firewatch meant for them. “Firewatch’s budget, while huge for us, was modest for a game of its quality and scope, but we made our investment back in about one day. Firewatch has sold around 500,000 full-price copies in its first month… We’re so grateful. And relieved. But mostly Grateful.” Congratulations to Campo Santo, and to Panic. Hopefully we see more from them very soon.