Chances are, if you’ve spent any number of years in the gaming fandom then you’ve at least heard of (or even played) a Tale of Tales game. From a vignette featuring an old woman with The Graveyard to the pleasurable action of Luxuria Superbia, these developers have always strayed from convention in fantastic ways. When they jumped on Kickstarter for the first time with Sunset it seemed like a smart decision. Now fans would be able to fund the next great Tale of Tales title and newcomers would be made aware of their work in the most “gamer friendly” means possible.

Sunset is a narrative focused adventure game from Tale of Tales.

As it turns out, Sunset was not a big hit. In total there have only been a little over 4,000 copies of the game sold so far. That includes sales from “pre-orders” on the Kickstarter itself and even the Steam Summer Sale copies. For reference, there were a total of 2,228 backers on the Kickstarter. With the lowest tier ($15) granting a copy of Sunset, and the fact that many people don’t back below reward tiers… Well, it doesn’t paint a particularly pretty picture. At minimum, half of all current Sunset sales are based off the Kickstarter backers themselves. 2,000 people finding and adoring your game is far better than 100 or so, but it definitely doesn’t speak well as to the financial sustainability of a product.

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The latest blog update on Tale of Tales’ site reveals that they’re moving on from video games. They’ve been seen as outsiders to the industry for years and are now free to pursue their creative needs in all sorts of other fields. They may even make a video game in the future, but not with any expectation of commercial success again. Please note that both members of Tale of Tales, Auriea and Michaël, now have Patreon accounts if you want to fund their future endeavors.

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Marcus Estrada

Marcus is a fellow with a love for video games, horror, and Japanese food. When he’s not writing about games for a multitude of sites, he’s usually still playing one. Writing about video games is something he hopes to continue doing for many years to come.

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