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Polish developer One More Level has disclosed the first figures for Ghostrunner 2, a sequel to its commercially successful cyberpunk action game. Let’s take a closer look at the data.

One More Level estimated total revenue from the basic version of Ghostrunner 2 at PLN 24.4 million ($6.13 million), according to Bankier.pl. The game hit this milestone on October 31, just five days after its global launch.

Ghostrunner 2’s production costs amounted to PLN 16.7 million ($4.2 million), so its gross profit reached PLN 7.7 million ($1.93 million).

The studio, however, didn’t disclose the game’s sales or other details.

Released on October 26, Ghostrunner 2 received positive reviews from critics, with an average score on Metacritic of 80 (PS5 and PC versions). On Steam, it currently holds a 91% rating based on more than 2,000 user reviews. The original Ghostrunner has over 40k reviews, with 92% of them being positive.

According to SteamDB, Ghostrunner 2 peaked at just 2,264 concurrent players. For comparison, the first game had a much higher player count at launch — 11,294 CCU. Even three years after launch, the original Ghostrunner has much higher online numbers than its sequel.

Online charts for Ghostrunner and Ghostrunner 2 (via SteamDB)

In May 2021, publisher 505 Games acquired the Ghostrunner IP from All in! Games for €5 million. At the time, the company disclosed that the first game’s production costs amounted to €2.5 million ($2.74 million at current exchange rates). As of September 2023, it had sold over 2.5 million copies globally.

Ghostrunner 2 is likely expected to at least repeat the success of its predecessor in the future, especially since it has a higher production budget. Earlier this year, 505 Games allocated over €500k for the game’s post-release support, with upcoming DLC expected to drive the long tail of sales.

Founded in 2014, One More Level has several titles in its portfolio, including side-scrolling zombie game Deadlings, 2D action title Warlocks vs Shadows and top-down shooter God’s Trigger.

In addition to the Ghostrunner series, 505 Games is known for publishing games like Control, Sniper Elite III, and the PC version of Death Stranding. Earlier this month, its parent company, Digital Bros, announced an organizational review that will result in cutting 30% of its workforce, or just over 130 people across its development studios and publishing units.

Ghostrunner 2 hits $6 million in revenue, recouping its production budget of just over $4 million | Game World Observer

Polish developer One More Level has disclosed the first figures for Ghostrunner 2, a sequel to its commercially successful cyberpunk action game. Let’s take a closer look at the data.

gameworldobserver.com

 

[Edder1]

Pretty insane that they were able to pull off game of that quality with such low budget, just shows how efficient some devs can be as opposed to others who deliver trash that costs $100+ million. I would imagine that not having to do facial capture and mo cap must have saved a ton of money, but regardless the amount spent is still impressive.

 

[Hypereides]

Nice, another win for AA games. Hope this is the beginning of a new trend.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Pretty insane that they were able to pull of game of that quality with such low budget, just shows how efficient some devs can be as opposed to others who deliver trash that costs $100+ million. I would imagine that not having to do facial capture and mo cap must have saved a ton of money, but regardless the amount spent is still impressive.

Gaming is just like movies. Every sequel has to be bigger, flashier and more expensive. To the studio and execs, dumbing the product down looks bad and the assumption is if the budget gets smaller it means the product automatically gets worse. Just keep on throwing money at the project and assume more money means better product.

In office life, there's always the year over year budget sandbagging too.

You got to purposely spend money on dumb shit to retain the budget next year. If you act wisely and be efficient and cut the fat, next years budget will be low too. So a lot of assheads will blow the budget in Q4 in hopes nobody in finance catches on and approves the wasted funds for next year. In my experience, the marketing dept does this the most with their advertising budgets. Sometimes they go apeshit doing more last minute ads in Nov and Dec so they retain their advertising budget next year. And the more last minute you are, the higher the cost charged by TV channels.

 

[Arsic]

So for those who have played the first and the second:

Do you need to play the first before second ?

I couldn’t get into the first that much. Felt like a poor man’s janky Hotline Miami.

 

[The Skull]

Loved the first, does it still stutter like crazy on pc? The demo was awful with shader compilation stutter.

 

[TastyPastry]

nice, hopefully it means there will be a third

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Pretty insane that they were able to pull of game of that quality with such low budget, just shows how efficient some devs can be as opposed to others who deliver trash that costs $100+ million. I would imagine that not having to do facial capture and mo cap must have saved a ton of money, but regardless the amount spent is still impressive.

Games don't cost that much to develop in Europe outside of the UK.

A studio with less than 50 employees, 3 year development window in Poland? Yeah, that's not going to cost you much.

 

[balls of snow]

Will buy GR 2 in the future. Still making my way through these bangers.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

That's an impressive game they put out for 6 million.

Puts to shame those $200 million budget games.

 

[ComputerBlue]

I’ve had the first game installed for what seems like forever, gotta get around to it eventually.

 

[mckmas8808]

That's an impressive game they put out for 6 million.

Puts to shame those $200 million budget games.

No it doesn't. But this is a great achievement. Congrats!

 

[ByWatterson]

A per capita GDP of $18K will lower budgets, yeah.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Congrats to them. I wanted to love the original but I was really shit at it and didn’t have the patience to improve.

 

[TwinB242]

I couldn't stand a lot of the story and dialogue but the gameplay was really fun. Definitely a good time.

 

[keepthemeyesopen]

I couldn't stand a lot of the story and dialogue but the gameplay was really fun. Definitely a good time.

I'm not even paying attention to the story and dialogue, it's all about that sweet fast paced gameplay.

 

[TwinB242]

I'm not even paying attention to the story and dialogue, it's all about that sweet fast paced gameplay.

There's so much of it at some points that it actually becomes distracting and makes it harder to focus on the fights.