Sunset Overdrive, the 2014 Xbox-exclusive open-world title from Insomniac Games, only made the company a profit of $567. This data was unearthed as part of a massive hack that Insomniac faced recently.
Sunset Overdrive has sold 1.9 million copies roughly over its lifetime until now. With over 42.5 million USD spent as development cost for the game, Insomniac barely reached the break-even point.
While there is a lot of revenue-related information to look at from Insomniac’s leaked documents, this Sunset Overdrive data point stands out to me since I absolutely adored the game and still boot it up from time to time to have some stupid fun.
However, it’s not all bleak as Insomniac has seen massive success with the Spider-Man games in the last five years. Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018), which is referred to as ‘i20’ in the document, dwarfs all the other games in their portfolio with roughly 46.5 million USD in lifetime profit.
The studio is currently working on Marvel’s Venom and Wolverine titles, which are slated for release in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
However, the Sunset Overdrive lifetime profit data gives us some understanding of why Microsoft didn’t bother making a sequel. The gaming community thought of it as an underrated hit, but this is surely an eye-opener.
