Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Warhorse Studios has officially been a huge success, with the developer recently announcing in a community stream that the medieval RPG has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. For a single-player RPG, this is undoubtedly a huge milestone, but when you put those numbers next to the original, they look even more impressive. Kingdom Come: Salvation. Given that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Less than 17 months after its launch, the product has already doubled the sales of its predecessor in a shorter period of time.
For Warhorse, this is definitely good news worth celebrating. Kingdom Come: Salvation It has evolved from a bold historical RPG experiment into a franchise with powerful commercial power. Still, there's a big problem with franchises like this. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's success also means that Warhorse is entering a very different future than the one it had after the original game.
Warhorse's open-world Lord of the Rings game already feels like the GTA 6 of RPGs.
Warhorse Studios' Lord of the Rings game has already created a lot of hype and could have a similar impact on the industry as GTA 6.
Kingdom Come has become too big to stay small.
text Kingdom Come: Salvation Although it was successful, it always felt like an underdog compared to all the other major open world RPG franchises. According to Warhorse, the game was a grounded medieval RPG with no dragons, no magic, no fantasy races, and no desire to make the world more accessible. Even when it became popular, it still felt like a successful game because it was so different from everything else around it.
Guess the game with emoticons.
start
Guess the game with emoticons.
Easy (120 seconds) Medium (90 seconds) Hard (60 seconds)
of course, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 The franchise changed this, and rather quickly. first Kingdom Come: Salvation 2 million copies were sold in 1 year, exceeded 3 million copies in 2 years, and it took approximately 6 years to reach 6 million copies. KCD2on the other hand, reached the same sales milestone in less than a third of that time, showing that Warhorse is no longer dealing with a niche curiosity.
text Kingdom Come: Salvation Although it was successful, it always felt like an underdog compared to all the other major open world RPG franchises.
But the good news is this is where things start to get a little more complicated. Essentially, kingdom come Now it's grown enough to raise even greater expectations. This will undoubtedly lead to bigger budgets and greater pressure on studios, which is a bit of a bitter reality for all game developers. if Kingdom Come: Salvation It was more of a scrappy outsider, and it can't stay that way anymore because the sequel has now decided what's going to happen. Warhorse really has no choice but to ride that wave.
However, this does not mean that developers must accept every idea they want to implement. more successful kingdom come It could mean bigger maps, more cinematic stories, wider audiences, and above all, a much more accessible experience. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 I tried to be. Some of that growth is natural and certain; KCD2 Warhorse has already proven that it's possible to build on the original game's formula without losing its soul. But the danger is going too far in that direction.
one of the reasons kingdom come The reason there are such great franchises is because they are stubborn. It forces players to play by the rules and live with the consequences of their decisions. But as a series becomes more popular, it can become more difficult to maintain the rough edges that give the IP its unique identity.
KCD2Six million units sold doesn't mean Warhorse has to make its next game a blockbuster fantasy RPG. Because it could be argued that the studio now has the green light to continue believing in the formula it's already established across two games. The problem is that greater success often increases the pressure to become more welcome. kingdom comeThe biggest advantage of has always been how unwelcome it actually is. So Warhorse must find a way to maintain these qualities as it moves toward a more glorious future.
Warhorse's Future Is Bigger Than Kingdom Come Now
It's also worth mentioning that the timing of this sales milestone makes things even more interesting. Warhorse is now working on other things. kingdom come The developer of open-world RPGs set in adventure and Middle-earth is now more prepared than ever, but that's only half the battle. Now that you're working on one of the most recognizable IPs of all time (and one that will naturally defy their iconic design philosophy in many ways), you have to ask yourself whether you want to go big just because you can, or if you'd rather stick to one-lane roads for now. Kingdom Come: Salvation.
The problem is that greater success often increases the pressure to become more welcome. kingdom comeThe biggest advantage of has always been how unwelcome it actually is.
Some people impulsively call this Warhorse's “sell out” moment. Because it can immediately seem as if the developer has essentially given himself over to a franchise that already has its own rules and boundaries. It can be difficult for a studio to remain true to form in Middle-Earth, and this is where the trouble can really begin. Warhorse is now successful enough that you can trust something as big as its open world. lord of the rings But it also means that it's successful enough to break away from the one thing that made the game so interesting in the first place. kingdom come It may be much bigger now than it was in 2018, but it's still a stranger, more difficult, and universally less marketable franchise than Middle-Earth.
That's the uncomfortable part. KCD2is a success. The warhorse is proven kingdom come It could be sold, but it also proved valuable enough for the studio itself to be linked to something better known. From a business perspective, this makes perfect sense. lord of the rings One of the safest fantasy brands in the world to develop games for. kingdom come is still a historically based RPG that refuses to provide players with the strong fantasy many people expect from other open world RPGs.
That's right. KCD2's six million unit sales are great news for Warhorse, but you could also argue that it marks the moment when the studio becomes too big to belong solely to Warhorse. kingdom come. Warhorse has earned the right to pursue bigger things, but its biggest challenge now is making sure its success doesn't turn its most obvious franchise into something that operates somewhere between a safer and more universally loved opportunity.
- released
-
February 4, 2025
- ESRB
-
Ages 17+ / Alcohol, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, intense violence, partial nudity
- developer
-
Warhorse Studio
