Sea of Stars Director Was Surprised by Game’s Massive Success

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Thierry Boulanger, the director at Sabotage Studio, recently sat down with Game Informer to discuss the incredible success of their hit game, Sea of Stars. Boulanger revealed that the game has been far more successful than he ever imagined, reaching over six million players since its release.

Boulanger admitted that he personally estimated the game would be about seven times less successful than it has been. He explained that coming from their previous game, The Messenger, he had a certain expectation for a retro-style game’s performance. He wasn’t expecting the kind of player numbers that major AAA games often see. He also pointed out that unlike their previous game, they didn’t have a big publisher this time around, so the massive success was even more unexpected.

“It just means there’s something that resonated with a wider group,” Boulanger said. He believes the game’s success wasn’t something they could have predicted or designed for. He simply tried to make the best game possible within its genre. He added that the team is very happy with the positive feedback and recognition the game has received, acknowledging that it became much bigger than they ever anticipated.

This surprising success has also changed the team’s plans for a DLC, or downloadable content. What was initially planned as a small, quick project that would take a couple of months has now become a much bigger deal. “Now it’s like, ‘Hey – we have, we have those means. Let’s just go full on with all the ideas that we had, that we were sitting on,'” Boulanger explained.

When asked about which platform was the most successful for the game, Boulanger mentioned that it performed “amazing on the PlayStation and PS Plus catalogue.” He suggested that because the PlayStation Plus library is smaller, it might give each title more visibility. He also said that Steam was not their top platform, and he feels the game is more suited for consoles. For Sabotage Studio, Boulanger noted that “Nintendo will always be the big one.”