Deadliest Warrior devs reveal 225K-plus sales in postmortem
In a recent postmortem on Gamasutra, the team behind Deadliest Warrior discussed the game's successes and failures. Slotted firmly in the success column are the sales numbers, with Gamasutra noting that Deadliest Warrior has racked up over 225,000 units in sales since its XBLA launch in July (it later arrived on PSN in October). Spike Games' Prithvi Virasinghe and Pipeworks Software's Jeremy Mahler agree that one key to the game's success was its realistic approach to combat.
Strangely enough, Spike and Pipeworks independently reached the same conclusion: An approach similar to Square's classic Bushido Blade would help Deadliest Warrior stand out in a genre dominated by combo-heavy fighters like Street Fighter, Tekken and Soul Calibur. The two also discuss the challenges of overcoming the stigma associated with licensed games. The team opted to preview the game to as many outlets as possible to dispel any reviewer's desire to undeservedly write the game off. "We wanted the game to speak for itself on its own merits," recalls Virasinghe. In Joystiq's case at least, the strategy certainly worked.
