The demand for indie titles on the Switch continues. Elden Pixels has revealed its 8-bit adventure Alwa’s Awakening has had an incredibly strong launch week on Nintendo’s eShop. According to the developer, it has sold as much in its first week on Switch as it did in its entire launch month on Steam last year. No exact figures were provided. The head of the small indie studio also mentioned how Steam sales in 2018 had outperformed the previous year, citing discounts as the main reason.
This, of course, isn’t the first time we’ve heard about strong indie sales on the Switch. Not long ago, the developer behind Salt And Sanctuary revealed the game had sold “super well” in its first week on the eShop – with numbers rivalling the first week of Steam sales. Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King also had higher sales numbers on the Switch compared to Valve’s digital service. In the past, other games including Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, Hollow Knight and Death Squared have also sold exceptionally well since releasing on the Switch eShop.
Did you download Alwa’s Awakening from the Switch eShop in its first week? Do you buy most of your indie games on the Nintendo Switch? Tell us below.
[source destructoid.com]
Comments (26)
Indie games are probably my favorite kind these days, and the Switch is the perfect system for them.
Glad to hear it. I adore indie games and the Switch is the perfect console for them, so even though this game isn't my thing I'm happy for its success.
Glad to hear the success they're having. Seems like they care about their product. I'm 3 bosses down at this point and 1 more to go it seems. It's been solid so far.
I’m really enjoying this game, about 10 hrs in
I was never into Indies before, but have quite enjoyed indulging regularly on Switch.
Nice! The game looks great
Yeah, have to say I'm pretty happy with this game! Nice to hear it's selling well.
I just beat it this morning and I really liked it. The whole game took me maybe about 5 hours and I got about 85% Item Collection, but I enjoyed it so much I'll probably go back to 100% it.
It's strange since this week's eshop chart is out with Super Mario Party and Mega Man in high positions and Alwa doesn't appear in it....
I'm gonna get Alwa this year. It really caught my attention
I bought the game because it looked like a fun indie pixel metroidvania, and I'm a huge fan of those. The game was really slow-paced and not very fun though. Exploration felt like a chore rather than being fun intrinsically. I don't recommend it.
I mean, they launched it on a platform with 1% of the catalog size that Steam has, any indie game that received ok reviews and very little media coverage will automatically do better by default.
It's my kind of game even if it wasn't rated stellar. I think it's still on sale... I might pick it up.
I remember looking for sales information for this game on Steamspy and as I really loved this game it was sad to see the sales figures were somewhere in between 7,000 and 10,000 for a really long time. Steamspy can't track the sales anymore the way it did so we can't see what it has sold lately.
I'm really glad it has sold at least better on Switch than it initially sold on Steam. It's a fantastic game and deserves lots of sales.
Honestly hadn't heard of this game until now. For everyone saying how great it is, what is it about it that you like so much? Seems to be a lot of love for it, and now I'm interested, but want to know what is making it so great. Is it the story? Controls? Concept?
I'd say I'm similar to a lot of people, I tend to be mixed on a lot of indie games, some cause I'm spoiled by the quality and tight controls Nintendo usually puts out with their games, some because most are on Steam and it's too hard imo to find good indies/ games in general on Steam that I personally like, and gaming on PC is a bit of a hassle to set up a controller on. Plus I tend to prefer gaming on a big screen, and PC tends to be more restrictive.
The Switch has helped a lot in that regard, using a standard controller, being on TV and being able to play portably. A lot of indie games I've been checking out are almost like semi mobile games, the roguelikes are meant to be played in small bursts, but the controls are too complex for simple touch controls. The Switch then really is the perfect platform for a lot of them, and I've been checking and enjoying a lot more of them because of it.
This really didn't do well on steam.
Just release sale numbers like Hollow Knight did. "Better than" a PC version with no data is not saying much.
I still need to get this, but I'll.
@John_Deacon It's in the eShop charts!
1. Super Mario Party
2. Undertale
3. Minecraft
4. FIFA 19
5. Mega Man 11
6. The Way Remastered (-80% from 14,99€ to 2,99€)
7. Dead Cells
8. Overcooked! Special Edition (-50% from 19,99€ to 9,99€)
9. Stardew Valley
10. Ultimate Chicken Horse
11. Hollow Knight
12. Cities Skylines - Nintendo Switch Edition
13. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
14. Violett (was on sale)
15. Dragonball FighterZ
16. SEGA AGES - Sonic The Hedgehog
17. Overcooked! 2
18. Super Mario Odyssey
19. Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story
20. Okami HD
21. Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
22. ARCADE ARCHIVES - Vs. Super Mario Bros.
23. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
24. Valkyria Chronicles 4
25. Rocket League
26. Nine Parchments (-60% from 19,99€ to 7,99€)
27. TowerFall
28. Surgeon Simulator CPR
29. The Escapists 2 (-40% from 19,99€ to 11,99€)
30. Armello
31. Moorhuhn Wanted
32. South Park: The Stick of Truth
33. Thumper
34. Find The Balance
35. Plague Road (-92% from 12,50€ to 1,00€)
36. Yoku's Island Express
37. Worms W.M.D (-40% from 29,99€ to 17,99€)
38. FunBox Party (-50% from 1,99€ to 0,99€)
39. Steredenn: Binary Stars
40. Snipperclips
41. Octopath Traveler
42. Wizard of Legend
43. Into the Breach
44. Hollow (was on sale)
45. Mario Tennis Aces
46. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
47. Splatoon 2
48. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
49. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
50. Xenoblade Chronicles 2
51. Final Fantasy XV - Pocket Edition HD
52. Little Dragons Café
53. Sky Force Reloaded
54. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
55. Risk of Rain
56. The Messenger
57. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
58. Mecho Tales (-88% from 8,49€ to 1,00€)
59. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
60. Bastion
61. CAPCOM Beat'Em Up Bundle
62. Broken Sword 5
63. Snake vs Snake
64. Hyper Light Drifter - Special Edition
65. Go Vacation
66. Senran Kagura Reflexions
67. Reigns: Kings & Queens
68. The Gardens Between
69. BRAWL
70. Joe Dever's Lone Wolf
71. Enter the Gungeon
72. Crash Bandicoot - N. Sane Trilogy
73. Human Fall Flat
74. Sparkle 3 Genesis
75. Wasteland 2 - Director's Cut
76. Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - Owltimate Edition
77. Pokémon Tekken DX
78. The Escapists - Complete Edition
79. Pirates: All Aboard!
80. Bad North
81. Lost Phone Stories
82. The Bridge
83. Broforce
84. Shadow Fight 2
85. Gaokao & Love: One Hundred Days
86. UNO
87. SEGA AGES - Thunder Force IV
88. FAST RMX
89. Robonauts
90. Scribblenauts Mega Pack
91. Retimed
92. Alwa's Awakening
There you have it. #92.
@SKTTR Come on, man!! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
#92!!!!!
@John_Deacon
Number 92 out of 1150 games is pretty good.
@SKTTR Developer here again Where did you find that list? Is that a list for The Americas or worldwide?
@MikaelForslind It's for Europe/Germany, and it's on the eShop.
The eShop basically has a Top 1000+ chartlist if you sort "All games" by popularity. There you can track the sales position of every Switch game. I think every country has their own sales chart, so Alma might perform differently elsewhere.
@RedMageLanakyn
That doesn't explain the comparative lack of indie successes on Wii, Wii U, 3DS, XBOX ONE and PS4 - all smaller libraries than Steam.
Folks could simply not but anything, which has historically been the case.
I think it has to do more with Steam's Facebook-style algorithmic curation and Nintendo's levelling of the playing field. Thier top-level is chronological order, and no other storefront does this.
It's also becoming clear that Switch is the best hardware for pretty much any game it can run. Premium pricing and being "late to the party" do not deter new players, or even - if the forums are to be trusted -double-dippers.
Having that sub-20 pricepoint on a handheld is also massive factor. The ultility of the hardware almost begs for a game to be slotted in at any given time. It may be anecdotal, but I haven't had a moment between games since launch just to have something to play on Switch. That quality, the generally low price of indie games, and Nintendo's shrewd focus on the economy of attention in it's ecosystem is a really good recipe for this sort of success.
I think these points explain more and track better than your cynical analysis.
@Spiders Whatever floats your boat. Having bought and played through the game, this is my opinion on this particular game, not indies on Switch as a whole. I agree with the under $20 price point and overall mainstream success of the Switch being factors, but I still stand by my opinion on this game, which at it's launch on Steam, had no press coverage and was, again, IMO, a very mediocre platformer.
I read this story as a small indie game having success on the Switch. How it does compared to other games, or people's opinion of its quality is much less important than how the developer views the different markets and the worth of bringing it to Switch.
It could mean this small team can grow and make additional games, where the Steam market may not have provided that for them. It's a world of difference for the developer no matter where it placed in a sales list or how much individual players liked the game.
That said, with this encouragement, I hope the developer takes some of the critical feedback to heart to make some improvements on their next game.
Taking chances with any particular indie games despite some negative reviews from other websites is one of my favourite past times as of right now. So many games received average reviews as of late that I have really enjoyed. And with how inexpensive a lot of them are, it is easy to make a gamble on a new potential favorite. Alwa's Awakening will probably be one of my next gambles.
Tap here to load 26 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...