Curve has today announced its latest PlayStation release, The Swapper, as the most successful launch title in the company’s two year history. The game, originally created for PC and Mac by Finnish developer Facepalm Games, is set to gross over $1,000,000 in the next month across PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
The Swapper is the latest in a long range of Curve titles developed for console by Curve Digital, whose catalogue includes some of the greatest indie titles ever developed from talented indie developers such as Mike Bithell, Ed Key and Jasper Bryne, along with titles from larger teams based around the world, from Brighton’s Futurlab to California based Funktronic games.
Sales of The Swapper prove the success of Curve’s long-term strategy of identifying popular PC indie titles and helping developers make the leap to console, bridging the wide divide between the accessibility of open PC marketplaces and the more traditional but hugely receptive audiences of Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony.
“Traditionally, if you wanted your game to appear on a console, you would need to work with both a publisher and a porting house to get the job done. At Curve, we keep everything in-house from development right through to submission, QA, and marketing..” said Curve Digital Managing Director, Jason Perkins.
The Swapper launch provides evidence of the value of Curve’s relationship with platform holders, with the game available in the exclusive and heavily marketed PSN Play promotion in America and the appearance of the game as one of the only indie titles to ever be offered a pre-order spot on PSN in Europe.
“Every game we release on console helps us build up more experience and more contacts in a world that, prior to this new generation of consoles, was out of reach of the vast majority of developers.” said Perkins, “Our extensive links with platform holders and our ever increasing empirical data on the purchasing habits of console gamers means we can offer not only the project management and technical expertise of a development studio, but the sales and marketing expertise of an experienced publisher.”
Following the success of The Swapper, Curve Digital’s marketing department has also expanded, with Curve recently hiring ex-Gamer Network Advertising Manager Paul Watson as a Commercial Marketing Executive. Paul’s role will focus on enhancing the long tail of Curve Digital’s existing titles through both platform and Curve lead promotional activity.