Bugbear's Next Car Game Earns $1 Million In One Week

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Bugbear's Next Car Game Earns $1 Million In One Week


After bombing out on Kickstarter, Bugbear's Next Car Game earned more than $1 million in just one week on Steam Early Access.

It looked like an ugly end for Bugbear's Next Car Game when it pulled the plug [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129963-Bugbear-Cancels-Next-Car-Game-Kickstarter] on its Kickstarter last November, after earning just over $80,000 on a $350,000 goal. The studio said it had decided to "concentrate our efforts on the preorder campaign," which at the time seemed to have a ring of "We have no idea what to do now" to it.

Yet here we are, just a couple of months later, and Bugbear's preorder campaign has been a great success indeed. "We're very proud to announce that the official Early Access launch of our titular demolition racing game, aptly titled Next Car Game, has been a huge success. The game was officially launched on Steam mid-January, and it instantly took the Steam Top Sellers chart by storm," it said in a statement. "In total, the game made over $1,000,000 during one week in sales through our own pre-order site and Steam."

How exactly the money breaks down between Early Access and Bugbear's own preorders isn't made clear, but given the apparent popularity on Steam it's reasonable to assume that Early Access [http://store.steampowered.com/app/228380/] represents the bulk of it. But Bugbear also credited the release of the playable "sneak peek" as having a huge impact on its fortunes.

"We were literally awe-struck by the great response the sneak peek received," the studio said. "The pre-order sales skyrocketed, and we reached and actually topped our original Kickstarter funding goal in just week! And most importantly: the success showed us that the players believed in the game."

"Thanks to our awesome fans, we finally have a chance to make the game we always intended," it added, implying that the influx of cash means that Bugbear will be able to see Next Car Game through to the end. There's still no word on a release date, but the Next Car Game website [http://nextcargame.com/] says it will be out early this spring.


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Dumb_Joe

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Feb 3, 2011
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I'm happy for bugbear. I hope they put the effort needed to make a ridiculously fun racing car game like the flatout series was and still is.
 

Smooth Operator

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Oct 5, 2010
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Well that is a pretty big surprise considering I barely saw them on the main Steam page for a day and never on the top sellers, they must really be doing something right in their promotion.
I mean the game is cool with very detailed destruction but there are also some really big competitors in the genre, wouldn't think a new boy can get much traction.
 

Zefar

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May 11, 2009
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I'm gonna get this game. As I enjoyed their racing physics from previous Flatout games and I'm gonna bet it's going to feel about the same.

Flatout 3 was an abomination done by another studio. Didn't even buy that one. So for me, Flatout Ultimate Carnage is the best racing game I've ever played. Nothing was more satisfying than slamming cars into wall from the side or push them into a metal pole that can't be destroyed.
Burnout tries to do this but you can just slightly tap a car on the side and it goes crashing. No fun in that. You need to apply force from the whole engine to do damage.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
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Jul 15, 2013
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Yes please!! It's about time we had a current gen destructathon, i have much anger to release.
Plus burnout bailed on everyone, leaving us the watered down NFS series which is NOT cool, burnout.
It would be nice if they could add those sports mini games where you had to launch your unfortunate driver in various ways. Great pass around multiplayer. And hilarious rag doll physics especially with water skipping.
 

Commander Obvious

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Jun 2, 2013
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I have it and it's already a pretty entertaining game to screw around on for a few hours. It's going to be spectacular when we get the final product.
 

Teoes

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Jun 1, 2010
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Say what you want about early access, but I reckon I've already had my money's worth from just mucking about wrecking things in the current build and sneek peek. Chuffed for these folks.
 

RA92

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Jan 1, 2011
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If anyone has any doubt about the potentials of this game, just watch this:

<youtube=3SvRZpykS6s>
 

Hafnium

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Jun 15, 2009
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The idiotic name put me off, but the gameplay looks amazing, so I'l definitely be getting it.
 

Kahani

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Mr.K. said:
I mean the game is cool with very detailed destruction but there are also some really big competitors in the genre
Are there? Bear in mind this isn't just a racing game, it's ultimately the successor to Destruction Derby. There are plenty of racing games around, including some which try to apply somewhat realistic damage, but I can't think of any where the damage is pretty much the entire point.

wouldn't think a new boy can get much traction.
Maybe not, but I don't see how that's relevant to a developer that has been making, and winning awards for, racing games for over a decade.
 

SSJBlastoise

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Dec 20, 2012
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Mr.K. said:
I mean the game is cool with very detailed destruction but there are also some really big competitors in the genre, wouldn't think a new boy can get much traction.
There aren't really many I can think of right now that offer anywhere near the detail in the destruction. Grid, NFS, DIRT, Forza and GT only have the generic, hit the front and the front bumper falls off. There may be others with this amount of detail but they certainly aren't one of the big names.

Hafnium said:
The idiotic name put me off, but the gameplay looks amazing, so I'l definitely be getting it.
The name is just a place holder for the moment. In their Kickstarter video they explained that they hadn't come up with a proper name for it yet but were planning on naming it properly. I'm not sure if that's still the plan but I'd assume it is.

OT: I'm certainly interested in this game just for the amount or destruction and carnage, I didn't back it on Kickstarter because I couldn't afford it and unfortunately, I still can't.