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A Shakespearean dating game published in a peer-reviewed journal takes to heart the Bard’s line that “The course of true love never did run smooth."

What’s happening: We Are Not All Alone Unhappy, the charming side project of Firaxis narrative lead Cat Manning, asks players to test the romantic chemistry between characters from various Shakespeare plays.

The game was released with the new issue of the academic journal Borrowers and Lenders, accompanied by an essay from Manning explaining its construction.

Manning wrote in the essay that “These characters carry their personalities and preoccupations into these meetings, and success or failure in a conversation is determined by (my judgment of) what might fulfill each character’s emotional arc.”

What they’re saying: “Before I was in games, I was an academic who wrote on and taught Shakespeare’s plays, so when an academic colleague told me he was putting together [a journal issue] on Shakespeare and gaming and asked if I’d like to contribute, I jumped at the chance to bridge two of my passions in an interactive medium,” Manning told Axios.

The goal of the game is to find a number of happy endings for all nine characters by matching them up. Ever been curious whether Juliet would hit it off with Ophelia?

“We already have a lot of dark takes on classic literature, so what might a deliberately happy one look like?” Manning says.

While Manning did the writing, she said she brought on Destina Connor and Florencia Minuzzi of Tea-Powered Games to give the project its “teenager’s diary” look.

Manning is no stranger to novel games. She has been a part of creating Blaseball, the very odd, very fascinating browser game that simulates an absurdist baseball league.

“In the way that Blaseball dramatically widens the possibilities of baseball (incinerations, hauntings, fighting an imperious peanut god), I wanted to widen the story space of Shakespeare plays,” Manning says.

For now, she says she’s just happy to have We Are Not All Alone Unhappy, which she started working on in 2018, out into the world.

“There were definitely moments where I wondered if I shouldn’t just have released it on my own,” Manning says. “But having it out as part of a journal, and having my idiosyncratic field-crossing game in conversation with academic peers, has been great.”

Sign up for the new Axios Gaming newsletter here.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to remove an incorrect reference that Manning is involved with Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

Shakespearean dating game receives peer-reviewed journal release

Ever been curious whether Juliet would hit it off with Ophelia?

We Are Not All Alone Unhappy. Screenshot: Axios

Video games

Gaming

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Axios Gaming

Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors has published a 1,200-word defense of his company’s agreement to accept a $1 billion investment from the Saudi-backed Savvy Gaming Group.

Why it matters: It's an unusually blunt acknowledgment of the controversy tied to a type of deal that's become common in the industry this year.

Saudi funds, with ties to the country's government and its Crown Prince, have poured billions into Nintendo, Activision, EA, Take-Two and more in the past year.

Leadership at those companies has largely kept quiet, even amid controversy around the deals.

What they're saying: “I understand and respect that there are different views on this topic. I don’t claim to have the right answers, but I want it to be clear that this decision was not taken lightly,” he writes. 

He acknowledges criticism of "accepting investment from an entity in a non-democratic country." Regarding that, he said the company has been open to investors from all regions and believes Savvy has "genuine" ambitions to support the global games industry.

On issues of rights and values, he says Embracer and Savvy CEO Brian Ward share "a strong belief in diversity and inclusivity."

The chairman of Savvy's board is Crown Prince Mohammed, who has  overseen his country's devastating war in Yemen and been implicated in the brutal assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Between the lines: Wingefors frames the deal as essential to Embracer, a voraciously acquisitive company that purchased Gearbox for $1 billion last year and is in the midst of buying the rights for Tomb Raider and the studio behind it.

"In order to stay as an independent company based in Sweden, we have been searching for more international long-term partners with capital that supports our strategy," he said.

Savvy bought its Embracer shares at a premium through a special offering. "I can’t comment on why SGG didn’t buy shares in the market, but for Embracer, it’s obviously much better as we are getting capital injected into the company," Wingefors writes.

Flashback: In 2020, Riot Games cancelled an esports partnership with Saudi Arabia, after pushback from many of its players. 

The bottom line: Wingefors says the deal won't alter Embracer's vision nor change its leadership.

He said he'd be supportive of giving Savvy a board seat, believing Ward's team shares his mindset.

Go deeper: Interview: New Saudi gaming company is well-funded and controversial

Gaming CEO defends $1 billion Saudi deal

"I don’t claim to have the right answers..."

Video game screenshot of a woman leaping across a chasm toward an ancient temple

Rise of the Tomb Raider. Screenshot: SquareEnix

Microsoft revealed a Minecraft spinoff game during its big annual video game showcase Sunday but also added to the evidence that the game industry's release slate for the rest of 2022 will be sparse.

Driving the news: Microsoft's 90-minute event ran in its usual mid-June Sunday slot in a week that normally would have kicked off the traditional E3 gaming trade show. 

The showcase, which aired to hundreds of thousands of viewers on YouTube and Twitch, was stuffed with footage of upcoming games.

The lineup included anticipated in-house productions such as space exploration adventure Starfield and third-party works like Blizzard's demon combat sequel Diablo IV.

As with a rival PlayStation showcase this month, many of the trailers shown Sunday ended with some variation of "coming in 2023."

Minecraft Legends, announced for 2023, was one of several new games announced at the event.

It's a strategy adventure in which players control armies of Minecraft characters who battle across a blocky world. The game is being co-created by Minecraft studio Mojang and genre experts Blackbird Interactive. 

While it comes from a Microsoft-owned lead studio, it will be made for Nintendo and Sony consoles, not just Xbox and PC. 

The big picture: Making games is hard in any year, but it's been tougher during the pandemic, leading to cascades of delays. 

Many of 2022's remaining big releases had been scheduled for 2021, and expected 2022 games mostly have been shunted to 2023.

Between the lines: Microsoft's gaming announcements Sunday for 2022 were low-key and conspicuously void of any big release for the holiday season.

2022 highlights: The addition of Hot Wheels tracks to the racing game Forza Horizon 5, a new murder mystery game called Pentiment that is set in 16th century Bavaria and the addition of helicopters and even a vehicle from hit Halo sci-fi franchise to Microsoft Flight Simulator.

2023 highlights: The promise of a new Forza game, Starfield and vampire-hunting adventure Redfall by the end of June 2023.

One of the most impactful announcements, the news of a cloud-based game from a team led by all-star developer Hideo Kojima, received no title, let alone a release date.

Be smart: The shrewdest move Microsoft made Sunday may prove to be a partnership with Riot Games, the massive Tencent-owned creators of the global 100-million-player hit League of Legends.

Riot's games are free to play, but it can be costly to pay to unlock their full rosters of characters.

Starting in early 2023, however, subscribers to Microsoft's Game Pass service will unlock all of the characters in Riot's top PC and mobile games — League of Legends, Valorant and Wild Rift. 

The deal is a new way of sweetening the Game Pass subscription, which is a central Microsoft offering — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has had a pay incentive tied to its success — and has largely involved granting subscribers access to full games on Xbox and PC.

Minecraft spin-off debuts at Xbox gaming event largely promoting 2023

No big Xbox exclusive is slated for late 2022.

Video game screenshot of blocky warriors in a forest

Microsoft’s plans to offer Xbox gaming without the need of an Xbox console are advancing this month with the rollout of a streaming app for new Samsung TVs.

Why it matters: Microsoft is trying to break down barriers in the games industry, where owning a specific, expensive device has often been a prerequisite to playing high-end video games.

Details: New 2022 Samsung TVs will support the new Xbox app starting June 30.

The plan colors in the specifics after Microsoft said a year ago it would bring cloud gaming to smart TVs.

How it works: As with the streaming tech used by Microsoft and competitors Sony, Google and Amazon, players won’t have physical access to the games or the machines running them.

Visual and audio data are streamed to the user’s TV via remote servers, as those servers receive the player’s controller inputs.

Users will need to have a controller and can use an Xbox One, a PS4 or PS5 controller or even an Amazon Luna controller.

Players will also need to have a $15/month Game Pass Ultimate subscription; the games available, including Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5, will be from that service. 

The big picture: Microsoft is chasing a potential multi-billion player market, offering a lower entry cost than the console and PC markets, where devices that run games cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. 

It’s also pushed cloud gaming on smartphones, tangling with limitations imposed by Apple along the way. (It has worked around them by also offering game streaming through web browsers.)

Other Xbox news emerged this morning from a business briefing meant to tee up the next year of Microsoft gaming initiatives:

The company is promising at least five new games across console, PC and cloud in their next fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2023. (Sunday’s Xbox gaming showcase will likely add specifics). 

A new plan, code named Moorcroft and slated for next year, will add pre-release game demos to Xbox Game Pass, to offer subscribers the kind of months-in-advance hands-on time with slices of games that has usually been reserved for trade shows and public gaming events. Microsoft says indie developers will be the early focus for this plan and that game makers will be compensated for building demos.

They reiterated plans to keep Activision Blizzard’s popular multiplatform games (think Call of Duty) on rival platforms. 

Xbox head of first-party games Matt Booty: “We feel that it’s our job to be caretakers, to be shepherds, to continue to build and nurture that community, not cut it up into pieces and try and take some of it away.” 

But they still don’t clarify what that means for the eventual release of new installments of previously multi-platform franchises from their last multi-billion-dollar studio purchase Bethesda, which years from now will have a new Elder Scrolls game to release.  

Microsoft to offer Xbox cloud gaming on Samsung TVs

New 2022 Samsung TVs will support the new Xbox app starting June 30.

Microsoft

Saudi Arabia is rapidly assuming a significant financial stake in the video game industry.

Driving the news: The government-funded Savvy Gaming Group announced a $1 billion investment in the Embracer Group, the gaming corporation that most recently acquired the rights for Tomb Raider and the main studio behind that series.

The purchase gives Savvy an 8.1% share of the company and 5.4% of the voting power.

Sweden-based Embracer Group was the most active purchaser of video game companies in 2021, acquiring 22 studios as well as acclaimed Borderlands-maker Gearbox.

What they’re saying: Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors described the investment as an opportunity to expand Embracer’s reach into the Middle East and North Africa region, “either organically, via partnerships, joint ventures, or via acquisitions of companies led by strong entrepreneurs."

Between the lines: It’s at least the seventh big spend on gaming this past year by the kingdom under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In January, the government announced the formation of Savvy. The group's CEO Brian Ward later told Axios it was the largest investment in the 50-year history of the kingdom’s wealth fund. The group immediately announced the $1.5 billion purchase of two esports groups and said it aims to become the leading games and esports group domestically and internationally.

In February, the fund said it secured a more than 5% stake in Capcom and Nexon for more than a combined $1 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Later that month, Bloomberg reported $3.3 billion of Saudi investment in U.S. gaming giants EA, Take-Two and Activision.

In May, Crown Prince Mohammed’s foundation announced a 96% ownership stake in another long-running Japanese video game company, SNK (Metal Slug, King of Fighters).

Also in May, the fund secured a 5.01% stake in Nintendo, which the company told Bloomberg it learned about from news reports.

The big picture: Saudi officials have said the investments will help modernize the kingdom, but they carry the heavy baggage of the country’s much-criticized human rights abuses.

The highly controversial Crown Prince Mohammed, who chairs Savvy's board, has overseen his country's devastating war in Yemen and been implicated in the brutal assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In an interview with Axios in March, Ward distanced the company from the government and argued, with notes, that the kingdom had improved opportunities for women.

Saudi’s deep investments in new sectors nonetheless raise suspicions of a company trying to change — or launder — its reputation, a saga now playing out in the world of golf as the kingdom sets up a rival to the long-running PGA.

Saudi Arabia invests $1b in Embracer Group gaming corporation

Sweden-based Embracer Group was the most active purchaser of video game companies in 2021.

Illustration of a Riyal coin in a CD tray of a gaming laptop. 

A decade after Early Access shook up how video games get released, many developers say that it has been a boon to the industry, despite potentially limiting creativity.

Why it matters: Along with digital distribution, Early Access (EA) has been instrumental in democratizing the modern games industry.

How it works: EA, on platforms like Steam and the Epic Game Store, allows for developers to release games before they are fully finished, to earn crucial revenue, build a community and receive feedback.

Minecraft was an early success story after developer Markus Persson released an “alpha” version of the game in 2009.

Now EA has become a robust part of the whole industry, and a big consideration for devs plotting out a game’s release, not to mention its design.

Of the 11,749 games released on Steam in 2021, 1,858 of them were EA, according to SteamDB.

Valve incorporated EA into Steam in 2013, and one early hit was 2015’s roguelike adventure game Darkest Dungeon, developed by Red Hook Studios. It quickly found an audience and was among the top 20 best-selling games on Steam that year.

“The traditional model of making a gold master and being done forever has a lot of flaws. This gave us an instant audience to help give feedback on the game, and also gave a much needed financial boost,” Tyler Sigman, co-founder of Red Hook Studios, told Axios.

Few games born out of EA marketplaces have matched the critical and commercial reception that Supergiant Games found in Hades.

It was released along with the Epic Games Store as a timed exclusive in 2018. Hades went on to receive a host of Game of the Year awards in 2020.

“We figured, we're going to get feedback on all these aspects of the game sooner or later — why not get more of that feedback earlier in the process when we still can do something about it?" Greg Kasavin, creative director at Supergiant Games, told Axios.

Yes, but: Not every game succeeds by releasing early. Many fail by not being able to gain an audience or by just not being a particularly good game.

Exacerbating all of that is the fact that since more people have an opportunity to release games, there’s more of a chance those games will be swallowed up in the tidal wave of releases.

“Making games, it's like I propose a theory that this experience will be fun,” Beamdog’s CEO Trent Oster told Axios. Beamdog released dungeon crawler MythForce to Epic Games Store’s EA in April. “And then once you expose it to the people, your theory is either validated or nuked.”

Between the lines: Many of the most successful EA games have been run-based, rogue-like games. That’s not only to keep players engaged but also to help a game’s chances of being discovered in crowded marketplaces.

“If you're making a puzzle platformer, that realistically, 90% of players are just going to play through once, Early Access is not going to be a good fit for you,” Dylan Gedig told Axios. He founded Red Nexus Games, which brought its pachinko rogue-like Peglin to Steam’s EA in April.

To him, if a game doesn’t have a “genre match” that coincides with an established community or fan base, “you're kind of fighting against an uphill current.”

For small studios looking at EA, those parameters might steer them away from designing other types of games.

The bottom line: Since EA allows for more game releases, platform holders like Valve and Epic who receive a cut from sales have every incentive to keep it as part of the industry. And players have learned what to expect from these releases.

“Players are a lot more discerning now, some totally ignore Early Access, others massively embrace it, and others use it to check out games that are already interested in an earlier stage than they might once have done, and they all play an important part of that ecosystem,” James Parker, director of puzzle brawler Fights in Tight Spaces, told Axios.

Game developers say Early Access has been good for the industry

It's also potentially limited what devs choose to create.

The number of Americans who play video games has declined slightly in 2022, likely due to the phasing out of pandemic-oriented lockdowns, according to a new report from the Entertainment Software Association.

Driving the news: The ESA’s new data, released this morning, shows the U.S. gaming population at 216 million, compared to 227 million for 2021. 

The 2021 figure is still an increase from early 2020’s 214 million.

The stat is based on people who play video games at least one hour per week. 

The latest U.S. census figures, from July 2021, put the country’s population at 332 million.

What they’re saying: “We actually view it as a good thing, as people are getting out, people are enjoying life, but people are still enjoying games,” ESA president Stanley Pierre-Louis told Axios. 

Pierre-Louis said the slight drop lined up with assessments of big game companies. Many of those are reporting lower sales compared to during the worst of the pandemic but still elevated numbers from before COVID-19. 

48% of U.S. gamers identify as female, up from 45% the year prior.

The average age is 33, up from 31 (Pierre-Louis noted that there are once again more gamers 45 and up than those under 18).

Some of the biggest category gainers are: people who play games online or in person with others (83% of respondents, up from 65% just two years ago) and parents who play games with their kids (77% of American parents, up from 55% two years ago).

U.S. gamers spend, on average, 13 hours playing each week.

Between the lines: The ESA is the trade association that represents big game publishers and is the industry’s main lobbying group in D.C. 

It commissions the survey annually and ran this year’s in February, surveying 4,000 Americans. The report has a +/- 2% margin of error.

Part of the ESA’s mission is to promote the positive aspects of games. To that end, the new report notes that 97% of Americans see some benefits to gaming (brings joy, inspires creativity, stress relief, etc.).

Number of video game players in U.S. dips after pandemic surge

Average American gamer is 33, nearly half identify as women.

Illustration of a gaming keyboard glowing with the colors and pattern of the American flag.

Nintendo described the sentencing of a hacker earlier this year as a “unique opportunity” to send a message to all gamers about video game piracy.

Why it matters: A newly released transcript of the Feb. 10 sentencing of Gary Bowser provides rare insight, directly from Nintendo, about the company’s grievances.

Bowser, a Canadian national, pled guilty last year to U.S. government cybercrime charges over his role as a top member of Team Xecuter. The group sold tech that circumvented copyright protections and enabled the Nintendo Switch and other systems to play pirated games.

Authorities estimated the piracy cost Nintendo upward of $65 million over nearly a decade and even compelled the company to spend resources releasing a more secure model of the Switch.

What they’re saying: “This is a very significant moment for us,” Nintendo lawyer Ajay Singh told the court at the time, as he laid out the company’s case against piracy and awaited the sentencing.

“It’s the purchase of video games that sustains Nintendo and the Nintendo ecosystem, and it is the games that make the people smile,” Singh said. “It’s for that reason that we do all we can to prevent games on Nintendo systems from being stolen.”

He noted Nintendo’s losses from Team Xecuter’s piracy and sounded a note of sympathy for smaller non-Nintendo game makers whose works are also pirated. 

And he wove in a complaint about cheating, which he said Team Xecuter’s hacks enabled. Cheating could scare off honest players and upset families: “Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage.”

Sympathetic audience: At the hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik noted that TV and movies glorify hackers as “sticking it to the man,” suggesting that “big companies are reaping tremendous profits and it’s good for the little guy to have this.”

“What do you think?” Lasnik asked Nintendo’s lawyer at one point. “What else can we do to convince people that there’s no glory in this hacking/piracy?”

“There would be a large benefit to further education of the public,” Singh replied.

The hacker’s side: In brief remarks directly to Lasnik, Bowser said longer prison time wouldn’t scare off hackers. “There’s so much money to be made from piracy that it’s insignificant,” he said.

Bowser was sentenced to 40 months, compared to the 19 sought by Bowser’s lawyer, who said the hacker had already served much of that time while awaiting trial. Bowser’s lawyer said that nearly six months of it was spent alone in a cell for 23 hours a day, due to COVID-19 and other health concerns.

“I think there is a role to be played here in terms of a message,” said Lasnik, who said in normal times he’d have given the full 60 months requested by federal officials. 

Later that day, Nintendo issued a press release thanking the authorities for prosecuting Bowser.

Nintendo wanted hacker's prison sentence to turn heads

A newly released transcript of the Feb. 10 sentencing of Gary Bowser provides rare insight.

Illustration of two Nintendo characters in soccer gear facing off

Sony showed off some major games during a widely-viewed digital event yesterday, but only one of them will even come close to releasing during the 2022 holiday season.

Why it matters: The latter half of this year is looking unusually fallow for big game releases.

Driving the news: Sony’s half-hour showcase spotlighted four likely blockbusters:

Resident Evil 4, a remake of Capcom’s iconic 2005 horror game, slated for PlayStation, Xbox and PC to release on March 24, 2023. 

Final Fantasy XVI, a new iteration of gaming’s top role-playing game series,  announced only for PS5 for a summer 2023 release. 

Street Fighter 6, a new installment of one of the top fighting game franchises, scheduled for a 2023 PlayStation, Xbox and PC release.

The Callisto Protocol, a new sci-fi horror game from PUBG publisher Krafton, on track for PlayStation, Xbox and PC for a Dec. 2, 2022 release. 

Smaller games Rollerdrome and Season got August and Fall 2022 dates, respectively.

Between the lines: Sony has a history of using events like this to promote games that are pretty far out.

Its June 2018 E3 showcase, for example, highlighted one late 2018 game (Marvel’s Spider-Man), one late 2019 game (Death Stranding) and two games that didn’t arrive until mid-2020 (The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima).

The big picture: When a platform-holder like Sony does a showcase, they’re trying to drive attention to their gaming ecosystem.

The intended vibe: all of this is available to you if you’re a PlayStation gamer and will hopefully excite you more than what Microsoft is about to show you at its Xbox event.

That’s why Sony (or Nintendo or Microsoft) doesn’t bother to mention that many of the third-party games they’re showing will also be released on rival platforms.

But a new message is also creeping in: some of this PlayStation awesomeness will come to you, even if you don’t have a PlayStation. Hence an announcement yesterday that PlayStation’s Spider-Man games, once exclusive to PS4/PS5 are coming to PC.

What’s next: When it comes to PlayStation, we still don’t know for sure if expected blockbuster God of War Ragnarok will make its 2022 release window. 

Sony shows off multiple 2023 game releases in PlayStation showcase

The latter half of this year is looking unusually fallow.

Final Fantasy XVI. Screenshot: Square Enix.

A coalition of child advocacy groups want the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Electronic Arts, warning the agency in a complaint Thursday that its popular FIFA video game exploits children and teens.

What's happening: 15 groups, including Fairplay and the Center for Digital Democracy, told the FTC that the game's use of loot boxes (boxes containing randomized virtual content, which can be bought with real money) exploits children by promising a competitive advantage and obscures the real cost with virtual currency.

The coalition also argues knowing the probability of unlocking the best items can be unclear and that it can cost thousands of dollars to get the most coveted cards.

They want the agency to investigate whether EA is engaging in unfair and deceptive practices in the design of the loot boxes.

How it works: Players of FIFA's Ultimate Team, a competitive online mode in the FIFA game, obtain the loot boxes — which contain player cards, team kits or badges — by spending real-world money on virtual currency or building up virtual currency through gameplay.

State of play: EA is already facing headwinds in Europe over the use of loot boxes to get a leg-up in the game, and the FTC has signaled the issue is on its radar as well.

What they're saying: "By relentlessly marketing pay-to-win loot boxes, EA is exploiting children’s desire to compete with their friends, despite the fact that most adults, let alone kids, could not determine their odds of receiving a highly coveted card or what cards cost in real money," Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, said in a statement. 

"The FTC must use its power to investigate these design abuses and determine just how many kids and teens are being fleeced by EA.”

Between the lines: FIFA and Madden Ultimate Team are highly lucrative parts of EA's sports games, bringing in billions of dollars, but are often criticized as exploitative and quasi-gambling, Axios Gaming author Stephen Totilo notes.

The other side: EA has previously defended the game's design, telling Eurogamer in an October interview that players have a choice on whether to spend money to obtain the loot boxes — called packs — and that it has put probability information in the packs in an effort to be more transparent.

EA declined to comment on the complaint with the FTC.

Child advocacy groups urge FTC to investigate FIFA video game

13 groups told the FTC that the game's use of loot boxes exploits children.

Illustration of a soccer ball made out of a patchwork of different bill denominations.  

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

One of the week’s most interesting new releases is tomorrow’s “Echoes of the Eye,” an expansion to 2019’s award-winning surprise hit, “Outer Wilds.”

Why it matters: “Outer Wilds” is both part of a broader trend and highly unique.

It’s another time-loop game in which the story progresses through numerous resets of the game’s universe.

But it’s also a game in which you are strictly an outer space explorer, with nothing to shoot, break or kill — and nothing to collect and bring back to the next 22-minute loop other than knowledge about how its fantastic solar system works.

The expansion’s contents have been kept secret (we won’t spoil anything here) other than that it offers some new, strange wonders to explore.

What they’re saying: “We want this to be a game about you exploring because you want to answer questions,” creative director Alex Beachum tells Axios, speaking of the original and its expansion.

“Outer Wilds” is about the “intrinsic motivation” of curiosity, Beachum says.

The original game contained a solar system of curiosities, each operating with its own looping systems for discovery, such as of a pair of planets called the “hourglass twins” that shed sand from one orb to the other, exposing explorable caves.

Between the lines: The dozen developers behind “Outer Wilds” started making “Echoes of the Eye,” just before the main game shipped.

The main game was made in relative obscurity.

Success has earned Beachum and the team a fanbase so motivated by their curiosity that they scour the expansion’s few pre-release screenshots to try to discern clues from the position of stars in the nighttime sky.

The unlikely success of “Outer Wilds”

"Outer Wilds” is part of a broader trend of time-loop games.

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