After a long day at work, many people love to unwind by playing video games. And a lot of them apparently like to play a title that takes them back to work.
Owlchemy Labs announced today that its virtual reality game Job Simulator has passed $3 million in sales, making it one of the biggest hits in the young VR industry. Job Simulator is available for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. It originally came out for PC on April 5, with the PS4 launch following on October 13.
“When we started development of Job Simulator, it was a massive risk to bet it all on a project that could only work in VR, especially with consumer VR hardware productization so far off and ambiguous,” said Owlchemy Labs chief executive officer Alex Schwartz. “It’s great to finally see the numbers show that even in such an early market, success can already be found. We’re incredibly proud of the fact that our game has struck a chord with so many players across the globe, both young and old.”
Owlchemy Labs also revealed that Job Simulator videos on YouTube have achieved more than 250 million views. Let’s Play videos are popular on YouTube, and many content creators have showed off Job Simulator’s humor. These videos aren’t just entertainment; they help spread awareness and excitement for games.
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“I think a huge part of Job Simulator’s success comes from how honestly fun it is to just watch someone play around and be silly in VR,” said Schwartz. “Tons of people have seen their favorite YouTuber play around in the physics sandbox that is our game, and that’s great for showing the masses how interactive and magical VR can be. We’ve also seen that these early attempts at mixed reality are the best way to show people what it truly feels like to be inside of a virtual space, so we’re actively working towards enabling streamers and content creators to be able to share VR footage easily in a format that’s clear and understandable rather than just slapping the direct VR feed to the screen.”
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