Sunset Overdrive – Sold 1.16 Million
It’s not hard to see what hurt the launch and subsequent sales of Sunset Overdrive, the Xbox One exclusive from Insomniac Games. The game was revealed at E3 2014 and was immediately eye-catching with its popping colors and witty dialogue and pop culture references. However, it was a little unclear what the game was; was it single-player? Co-op? Was there a story? It looked like Tony Hawk Pro Skater meets Ratchet & Clank but the marketing department never quite conveyed what the game was.
Sunset Overdrive released to critical acclaim and rightfully so, but Microsoft had already shot itself in the foot and, by proxy, all of the early exclusives. It’s a tired topic at this point but the Xbox One reveal and launch were historically bad and led to the system’s dismal early years, which it has yet to recover from – compared to Infamous Second Son, which also launched in 2014 and sold more than twice as much. Due to this and the poor marketing, Sunset Overdrive never amassed the audiences it should have. But hey, it’s not all bad, you can see how Sunset Overdrive likely led to the upcoming PS4 Spider-Man game, which will hopefully be the studio’s biggest hit to date!
