PS Plus Had Hugely Negative Effect On Oddworld: Soulstorm Sales, Dev Says

We often hear stories about games actually selling better after being included on services like PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass, but it appears that's not always the case. According to Oddworld: Soulstorm director Lorne Lanning, releasing it as a free PS5 title via PS Plus had a big negative impact on the game's sales.

In an interview (spotted by VGC) with the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast, Lanning said far more copies of Oddworld: Soulstorm were downloaded during its free period than Oddworld Inhabitants anticipated. The studio expected up to 100,000, but it ended up being more than 4 million.

Lanning explained in the interview that the agreement between his studio and Sony had Oddworld: Soulstorm launching in January 2021, which was just two months after the PS5 launched. Because of this, he anticipated a low attach rate for the console and for the free version of the game, paving the way for future sales once more people had it. The problem is that the studio didn't hit that date with COVID affecting the development process, and the game was instead made free at launch in April. This was "devastating" for its sales, according to Lanning.

"Because it slipped to April, we had the [most] downloaded game on PS5," Lanning said. "And it was I think approaching, at the end of the day, close to 4 million units or something like that. For free."

It remains to be seen how many copies Oddworld: Soulstorm will sell in its lifetime, but the prospect of downloading the brand-new game for free after buying a PS5 was definitely appealing. It had been in development for years, having originally planned for launch nearly four years before it eventually did. Along with directing the game, Lanning also served as its primary voice actor.