Yesterday, we mentioned how the development team behind the new Xbox Game Pass release of The Lamplighters League were still working hard on patches to improve the experience, but we've now got sadder news to bring your way.
Publisher Paradox Interactive has decided to write-down MSEK 171 of capitalised development cost for the game, with a projected impact of MSEK -248 on profit for the fourth quarter.
If you're confused about what that means, here's a bit of context:
In a statement, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester admitted the game's commercial performance had been a "big disappointment":
“The Lamplighters League is a fun game with many strengths. Even though we see cautiously positive player numbers in subscription services, the commercial reception has been too weak, which is frankly a big disappointment.
Game projects are by their nature always risky, but at the end of the day we haven’t performed at the level we should. It is painful but makes us more eager to roll up our sleeves and do better."
As mentioned here, The Lamplighters League does at least seem to be benefiting from "cautiously positive player numbers" on Xbox Game Pass, but clearly Paradox was expecting a significantly larger number of sales for this new IP.
It still looks like developer Harebrained Schemes will be polishing the experience over the coming days, weeks and months, but sadly the chances of a sequel appear to be slim-to-none. It's a shame, because we really liked this game!