It's been over a week since SEGA released Bayonetta on Steam. Despite the title being over eight years old, sales are showing that it's doing incredibly well.
According to statistics gathered by SteamSpy, the action title is owned by over 100 thousand people (114,007 ± 9,747 as of the time of writing). Originally released in 2009, Bayonetta follows the story of the titular Umbra Witch. With no memories of her past life, Bayonetta searches for answers within the holy city of Vigrid. As players pressed forward, the heroine ends up in a situation where she must find out her past in order to save the world.
During the time of the initial Steam launch, PC Gamer managed to speak with a Platinum Games spokesperson. During this interview, the spokesperson said that while Platinum may have a strong "positive stance" on the PC market, ultimately it isn't the developers who get to decide which platforms they can release their games on.
"...the decisions as to which platforms we release our games on, and which platforms are the main focus for the games we make are largely made by the publishers," said the spokesperson. "If it were up to us, we’d port all of our games to PC."
While the likelihood of Bayonetta 2 coming over to PC is nil, the spokesperson hinted that future games may continue to be published on the platform. Within the interview, the spokesperson spoke briefly about third-party developers and their involvement within the PC market. Given from what they've seen, the spokesperson said that they should become more involved with PC "from here on out".
In an article from PCGamesN, SEGA also commented on the success of Bayonetta's launch.
“Concerning Bayonetta surpassing 100,000 (according to SteamSpy), we do not have any confirmation of numbers," SEGA said. "However, we are extremely overwhelmed by the support for Bayonetta and love that we reached #1 on the Steam charts!”
Since its initial release, Bayonetta has since spawned both a sequel (exclusive to the WiiU) and an animated movie. As well as this, Bayonetta has also been featured as a DLC fighter in the latest Super Smash Bros. This is not the first time an older game from Sega has had considerable success on PC - a couple of years ago Valkyria Chronicles had arguably even greater success in the holiday season.
Bayonetta is currently available on Steam, WiiU, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Quick Take
After watching my friends go mental at Nintendo's deal in releasing Bayonetta 2 exclusively on the WiiU, it doesn't surprise me that the game is doing well in this market. From what I've found, Bayonetta has had a rather dedicated fanbase. While it may still be a little niche, the numbers shown are something that many Japanese publishers should note.
What are your thoughts on this? Are you surprised with the success of the game? Are you eager about Platinum Games focusing on the PC market for their future titles? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
