Live Sell culture

For some reason the games industry doesn't seem to like sharing sales numbers with the public, so it's always interesting to hear about how a current game is doing straight from the source. This weekend at PAX I spoke briefly with one of the marketers behind indie sensation Dead Cells, who mentioned that the game is performing much better on the Switch than the PS4. No concrete numbers were provided, but I was told the Switch version of Dead Cells is outselling the PS4 release by a factor of four to one.

This isn't totally astonishing, since those who own a Switch tend to prefer having the option to take their game on the go. It is at least a little surprising though, especially when you consider the disparity in the size of the PS4 and Switch install bases. Over 76 million PlayStation 4 consoles have been sold worldwide, compared to about 20 million for the Switch. The versatile console has nowhere to go but up, and some analysts are predicting it'll actually outsell the PS4 sometime later this year.

Dead Cells is a fantastic game no matter where you play it, but it's good to see that the controversy surrounding the title's IGN review hasn't hurt Switch sales. Some have complained about stuttering on the Switch version, but an upcoming patch by developer Motion Twin aims to smooth out some of those problems. Games with pixel graphics look particularly nice on the small screen, and performance tends to be less of an issue when Switch games aren't trying to push more than the system can handle.

This isn't the first game to perform better on the Switch than one of the other major platforms, but the strong sales are a good indication that consumers particularly enjoy having the option to play their games wherever they like. Other developers are bound to take note, and that can only mean good things if you're a fan of indie games on the Switch.