The Witness is on Track to Sell More in a Week Than Braid Sold in Its First Year

Jonathan Blow is one of the most well-known figures in the independent development scene and created the hit puzzle game, Braid. Arguably, Braid showcased the kind of creativity and visual flair many indie studios had the potential to create. Prior to the release of Braid, it was still quite uncommon for consumers to financially support indie titles as they were a fairly new concept. Braid was a huge success, and managed to receive superb critical acclaim from professional reviewers and the gaming community. Moving forward to 2016, it’s clear to see how revolutionary the indie movement has been and Steam is awash with a massive selection of obscure, innovative titles. Eventually, Jonathan Blow began to work on a brand new puzzle game entitled, The Witness.

The Witness adopts an absolutely gorgeous art style and features of over 500 tricky puzzles. As a result, the experience is quite long and bound to keep your interest over time. Despite receiving absolutely fantastic reviews, the game has come under some criticism for its $39.99/£29.99 price point. Even though releases from huge publishers like Ubisoft and EA can cost £44.99/$59.99, it seems some consumers are unwilling to spend so much on an indie puzzler. When compared to other indie titles, it is a costly endeavour. However, value always depends on the individual in question and their wage.

On another note, The Witness has been heavily pirated and already attained the most downloaded title on a very popular torrent site. Perhaps, this is down to the price point, or simply people wanting to play the game for free. Whatever the case, it’s disappointing to see someone’s hard work being pirated on such a large-scale. Despite this, The Witness is doing remarkably well and according to Jonathan Blow, on track to sell more in a week than Braid managed in a year:

https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/693668210499977216

I’m not sure if this refers to units sold, or gross profit. However, I do find this astonishing because the indie scene is very competitive these days, and Braid’s enormous success seemed so difficult to beat.