Minecraft-Like Xbox Live Indie FortressCraft Sells 16K On Launch Day

Developer ProjectorGames claims its Xbox Live Indie Game FortressCraft saw 16,000 sales on its April 8 launch day, selling to a full 70 percent of players who've tried out the demo so far. The 240 Microsoft point ($3) title bears more than a passing resemblance to mega-hit PC indie game Minecraft, which has made over $33 million in revenue from 1.8 million buyers since its beta release last December. Console players are apparently interested in the concept, with FortressCraft peaking at number 3 on the overall best-sellers list for the entire Xbox Live Marketplace during its first week on sale, ProjectorGames said. The game reached number 2 on the UK charts and number 1 in Canada, as well, according to the developer. As of this writing, FortressCraft is the 19th-best-seller of the day in the overall Xbox Live Marketplace, ahead of titles such as Rock Band, Castle Crashers and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Its fast initial sales have already made it the 41st best-selling Xbox Live Indie title of all time, ahead of popular titles like Breath of Death VII and Remote Masseuse. Projector also claims the title has made more revenue in a week than XBLIG top-seller I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 made in the past year. That title sold roughly 308,000 in the year following its August 2009 release, though mostly at a price of only 80 Microsoft points ($1). "All this is a significant accomplishment for the developer, ProjectorGames, as they realize the magnitude of their early success could mean bigger and better things for the game, and the XBLIG community as a whole, as FortressCraft attracts a whole new audience to the channel," the company said in a blog post announcing the sales numbers.