On August 15, the factory simulator shapez 2 was released in early access on Steam. Tobias Springer, the founder of the indie studio tobspr Games that developed the game, shared with the analytical service GameDiscoverCo the initial results of the project.
shapez 2
- In just its debut week, shapez 2 sold 70.5 thousand copies. Currently, the game's sales stand at 261.77 thousand copies with a return rate of 7.7%.
- According to GameDiscoverCo estimates, this was enough to include shapez 2 in the top 5 best new releases of August on Steam in terms of copies sold.
- The main markets for shapez 2 were the USA (27%), China (15%), Germany (10%), the UK (6%), and Japan (5%). Russia accounted for 2% of the game's sales.
- Before the launch, shapez 2 had 330 thousand wishlists.
- As Springer admitted, the good sales of shapez 2 can be partially attributed to it being a sequel. The game's success was also significantly aided by its participation in the Steam Puzzle Festival and the Next Fest demo festival.
- tobspr Games actively engaged with their audience throughout the development of shapez 2. "We spent a lot of time testing and communicating with the community to ensure they liked the game. We started engaging users in Discord from day one, conducted over a hundred polls on almost every matter. We even allowed them to choose the art style," said Springer. He added that at one point, the studio created a Patreon account to share game builds with supporters.
- Meanwhile, the developers invested very little in paid marketing and did not work with traditional media. They preferred collaborating with bloggers and streamers.