The Fullbright Company has published the initial sales figures for last month’s first-person indie darling, Gone Home, which has soared to 50,000 in little under a month. These figures encompass sales through Valve’s online distribution service Steam and the developer’s internal website. The game itself has garnered a multitude of positive reviews since launch, with critics praising the project’s impressive writing and immersive gameplay.
To commemorate the success, the studio published this message over on its website:
“Finally, those sales numbers we mentioned in the title. We’re happy to announce that between Steam and our own website Gone Home has sold more than 50,000 copies since launch. We’re now almost a month out since launching on August 15, and we hope people will find it encouraging to know that, along with the positive critical response we are continually grateful for and humbled by, we are also doing alright as far as sales numbers go!”
Having developed and published the game internally, The Fullbright Company adopted a less is more approach for Gone Home that has paid off in spades. The story itself orbits around Katie Greenbriar who, after returning from a year long trip to Europe in the year 1995, discovers that her family home is mysteriously empty. With little to no in-game tutorial or HUD, players are tasked with piecing together the pieces of the puzzle themselves by exploring the eerie residence.
In the build-up to release, the team behind Gone Home expressed their desire to subvert audience expectations by rendering the familiar haunted house archetype in a different light; a method of approach that has ultimately succeeded. The Fullbright Company’s independent title, with its environmental storytelling and palpable atmosphere, has been lauded for its stellar game design and will no doubt be a likely candidate for a game of the year nomination in the coming months.
Gone Home is currently priced at £14.99 ($19.99) over on the Steam marketplace and is available to download on PC, Mac and Linux. If you’re still apprehensive about the game, though, then be sure to check out our overly positive review.