Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has already recouped its development costs and turned a profit, having sold 1 million copies in its first 24 hours.
Daniel Vávra, co-founder of Kingdom Come developer Warhorse Studios, discussed the game's launch with Czech outlet Seznam Zprávy. A machine translation of his comments, separately archived here, confirms the game made money on its first day.
"Before the launch, we were betting in the studio on how many copies we could sell," Vávra said (again, machine translated). "And I won. I missed by 300 units. We're happy with the numbers, and if the trend continues at the same pace, it will be great."
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's launch success comes on the heels of controversial and somewhat opaque comments from EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who discussed the underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard at the company's latest financial call. Wilson's remarks, particularly the suggestion that The Veilguard didn't resonate with a "broad enough audience" at a time where players "increasingly seek shared-world features and deeper engagement," came across as a ham-handed endorsement of live service models, especially in the shadow of the multiplayer component that was once part of The Veilguard.
Countless games – including many EA games – have proven that single-player games are here to stay and can find huge success. The timing and the direct parallel of an RPG like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 becoming the game of the moment only hammers it home.
Former Dragon Age lead Mike Laidlaw also bristled at the argument that live service features would've helped The Veilguard. "I'm not a fancy CEO guy," Laidlaw said, "but if someone said to me, 'the key to this successful single-player IP's success is to make it purely a multiplayer game. No, not a spin-off: fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved about the core game' to me, I'd probably, like, quit that job or something."
This notably follows significant layoffs at Bioware, with the narrative team – you know, the backbone of an RPG – seemingly gutted as EA shuffles staff around and Bioware's remnants focus on Mass Effect 5.
As EA hints The Veilguard's low sales could be due to a lack of live service elements, former Dragon Age lead calls out "silly" demands to "fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved"
I was worried about starting Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 without playing the first RPG, but the opening hour proved I didn't need to be
