Deep Silver to ship 1m copies of Risen 2

Deep Silver will ship one million units of fantasy role-playing game Risen 2 around the world during the first half of 2012.

That's just an initial delivery.

Georg Larch, chief marketing officer at Koch Media's games label Deep Silver, told Eurogamer's German sister site GamesIndustry.biz that he expects Risen 2 to set a new milestone in the company's history.

"We are investing more than ever before in the Risen brand," Larch said. "Even the trailer is already rated with 9.4 of a possible 10 points on Gametrailers.com, which shows the expectations about the title."

Risen 2, developed by German studio Piranha Bytes, is set several years after the end of Risen. Titans have devastated the world and pushed humanity to the brink of existence. Creatures have emerged from the sea and stopped poor boats from doing their business.

You, the hero, must set out to stop the chaos. Your first stop as a member of the Inquisition is with pirates who frequent the southern islands. Player choices "serve to unlock new paths, features and additional skills for the character", we're told. "Together with a highly interactive environment and a full day/night-cycle affecting countless aspects of the game world, Risen 2 will be set in the most immersive RPG game world so far."

Risen 2 will launch for the PlayStation 3 as well as the PC and Xbox 360 - the first game released for the PC and Xbox 360 only.

The Xbox 360 version of the first game was panned by critics. It managed 4/10 in our Risen review.

Risen brand manager Daniel Oberlechner explained why Risen on Xbox 360 turned out to be such a damp squib.

"The console development of the first Risen started very late in the process," he said. "Risen was never planned as a multiplatform game. So we have decided very late to make an Xbox version.

"With Risen II the situation is completely different. We now have a parallel development on three major platforms from the beginning and it is obvious that this will bring a better result."