Divinity: Original Sin 2 roars out of the gates to nearly 500K sold
"As for the console versions..."
It's been a bombastic start for independent computer role-playing game Divinity: Original Sin 2, which has raced to nearly 500,000 sales on PC after being fully released four days ago.
"It is fantastic," Swen Vincke, owner of developer and publisher Larian Studios, told me this morning, "but it is also way beyond what we expected. We're close to hitting 500K units sold which is a number I believe took us two or three months with Divinity: Original Sin 1."
Divinity: Original Sin 2 had been available via Steam Early Access for a year leading up to last week's release. Vincke said the game added nearly 180K sales since the 14th September launch.
The unfortunate side effect of such popularity - a concurrent-player CRPG Steam record (from what I can tell) of 85K players - has meant Larian's servers have struggled to cope but, Vincke said, "We should have them up and running again soon."
Whether this strong indication of runaway success for Divinity: Original Sin 2 means console versions are now a thumbs up - Larian was waiting to see how the sequel sold on PC - remains to be seen, but early signs are good.
"As for the console versions, we're now focused on delivering our first patch for the PC version, something that is scheduled for this week," said Vincke. "Lots of players means lots of support issues coming in and we're trying to service them as fast as we can. After that, it'll be a long well deserved break for the team and then we'll boot up our machines again to work on the next things."
It took Divinity: Original Sin 1 around one year and four months to make the transition from PC to console in an Enhanced Edition, which performed very well while sat on ye olde sofa in front of the TV.
Rick Lane is still working on his Divinity: Original Sin 2 review for Eurogamer, but his early impressions were very positive. "So far I've seen nothing that suggests Original Sin 2 won't be as least as good as its predecessor," he wrote.