Although, BulletStorm was talked about a lot, advertised well, and despite reaching seventh place in February’s NOD top sellers list, BulletStorm ended up not being able to bring home to bacon for its publisher, Epic Games.
“[BulletStorm] didn’t make money for us,” Epic Games President Mike Capps said.
This comes as a surprise to me since BulletStorm enjoys a solid metacritics score of 85 and was heavily promoted in TV and virally all over the internet. BulletStorm also had the Gears of War 3 beta access key bundled with the game.
Even more, the game was the centerpiece of a wide controversy when Fox New called it “the worst video game in the world” from a moral point of view. Fox News’ attack was music to gamers’ ears as the news network interviewed a psychologist who stated that “If a younger kid experiences Bulletstorm’s explicit language and violence, the damage could be significant.” At the time, Capps was confident, saying that “controversy isn’t a bad thing” and that it helps in raising the game’s profile by bringing it to more people’s attention.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time with the game to give it a fair review to see why it flopped. But, the amount of time that I did get to play, I found it enjoyable but definitely not the best game out there.
BulletStorm’s ending leaves the door open for a sequel, however, Capps refused to confirm if it will happen any time soon. He did however reaffirm his confidence in its development studio. “The next thing we do with [the developer] People Can Fly will be great,” he said.
