Blossom Tales sold 20x more copies on Switch than Steam

Indie game, Blossom Tales, sold 20x more copies on Switch than Steam

Indie game, Blossom Tales, sold 20x more copies on Switch than Steam

PC gamers should be well aware of how Steam has changed over the years, eventually moving from being a curated storefront to become a mass market platform where any pretty much any developers can release a product on the storefront after paying a fee.

This change has made it difficult for new games to be discovered on Steam, as hundreds of games can be released on the store every day, making it difficult for indie developers with small marketing budgets to survive. 

One example of this is a game called Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King, a Zelda-like game from Castle Pixel which has been rated as “Very Positive” on Steam but has failed to achieve widespread success, so much so that the game’s developer almost went out of business.

The game was later ported to Nintendo Switch, over eight months after its PC/Steam release, with the game’s publisher revealing that the game generated 20x more revenue on the platform after less than three months of availability on the platform. Contrasting the Switch Store with Steam and it is clear that Nintendo validates games for release on their storefront, resulting in fewer games on the store but a higher quality selection of titles, allowing good games to be discovered with relative ease.  

In an interview with Game Informer, Castle Pixel stated that the game’s Switch version was a game changer for the company, ultimately turning the Blossom Tales into a success story. 


      It was a complete turn around, like FDG tweeted, it’s exceeded lifetime sales on steam by 20 to 1. Blossom Tales was built for Nintendo fans and the fans ultimately saved us in the end,

With the success of Blossom Tales on Switch, we’re able to continue making updates and ports to other languages like Japanese. 

 

Today it is becoming increasingly difficult for low budget games to be discovered by the games community, especially on Steam where games can barely stay on the store’s new releases pace for more than a few hours. Nintendo’s Switch is quickly becoming the platform of choice for new indie releases, not only due to its handheld/home console duality but the discoverability that it present developers in its online store. 

You can join the discussion on Blossom Tales’s Success on Switch after its failure on Steam on the OC3D Forums.Â