GDANSK :Shares in Polish video game maker 11 bit studios slumped 38 per cent on Monday to the bottom of Poland’s mid-cap index after the number of players of the company’s flagship “Frostpunk 2” game failed to meet market expectations shortly after its release.
Frostpunk 2, the sequel to BAFTA-nominated society survival city-builder “Frostpunk”, was released on Friday evening.
The highest number of concurrent players of the game on the Steam platform reached 35,533 on Saturday.
“We expected a significantly higher players peak in the 80,000-100,000 range, so we consider 35.5k as a negative surprise,” said Erste Group analyst Piotr Bogusz, adding that “relatively poor” ratings may also affect the purchasing decisions of players who have Frostpunk 2 on their wishlist.
“A drop in the average rating below the 80 per cent threshold affects the game’s visibility on Steam, which could translate into sales,” he said.
On Monday, the game had a “mostly positive” rating on Steam with 71 per cent of the 4,986 user reviews positive and praising, among other aspects, the graphics and strategic depth of the sequel. Negative comments mentioned poor optimisation and less immersion in the game compared to the previous release.
“We were maybe counting on slightly higher scores, but this negative sentiment or disappointment among players is due to the fact that it is not simply a sequel to Frostpunk 1, but Frostpunk 2…maybe we didn’t articulate enough that it’s not a clone, that it’s not a simple sequel but a different game,” 11 bit studios’ investor relations manager Dariusz Wolak told Reuters.
11 bit studios said on Monday that sales of Frostpunk 2 had exceeded 350,000 copies and that the total estimated proceeds exceeded production and marketing costs.
“We, as a product, feel very good about it. We have implemented the plan, our internal goals when it comes to the quality of the game. The sales in this period around the premiere are also as we expected,” Wolak said.
