Failbetter Games, the developer and publisher of the game "Sunless Sea," announced on Feb. 7 that the release for the game's sequel, titled "Sunless Skies" will be delayed.
According to Failbetter, the reason for the delay was because "Sunless Skies" was unable to meet the level of success "Sunless Sea" had in terms of sales. While "Sunless Skies" was successful on Kickstarter, the game was only able to achieve 15% of sales that "Sunless Sea" had over the same period of time. Failbetter also mentioned several factors that the developers think contributed to the low sales.
One of the possible reason for the low sales, according to Faillbetter, was that "Sunless Skies" went to early access too early — the timing for the early access was off, which resulted in fewer people talking about the game. Failbetter also believed that the market with which "Sunless Sea" was launched in 2014 is different compared with the market for "Sunless Skies." Moreover, Failbetter also believed that the success of "Sunless Skies" on Kickster contributed to the low sales as players have already bought their copies prior to the early access launch.
The game developer promised fans that the development of the sequel is ongoing. However, Failbetter shared that the resources they have at hand for the development are less than what they have wanted. Because of this, Failbetter has to lay off four of its 16 employees. Furthermore, Failbetter has decided to close the "Fallen London" mobile app in the second quarter of 2018. Instead, an improved "Fallen London" will release on the web.
The "Sunless Skies" developer also announced they will retire their "Fundbetter" program until they have enough funds to continue with its operation. In addition, the folks behind Failbetter have decided that they will be tying loose ends in "Sunless Sea" with an update that will include the release of a special Blemmigan. Failbetter noted that the upcoming update will be the last one for "Sunless Sea" as they will be focusing on "Sunless Skies" after that.
According to Failbetter, they are working on a "Sunless Skies" update to release this month that will improve movement and combat as well as the release of Albion. The new release date for the upcoming game will be announced next month.
