A Plague Tale: Innocence, a surprise hit from Asobo Studio, has sold over 1 million copies. The French developer announced the news on Twitter.

This game takes you through a medieval adventure that is dramatic, harsh, and has many, many rats that each have their own clever AI to scurry away from light. Being devoured by rats sounds like a bad way to go. One of the game's main mechanics is to make sure the characters have enough light to continue forward. It's graphically impressive for a project that's published by Focus Home Interactive and holds a powerful bond between a sister and her little brother that grows throughout an emotional journey.

"The entire team at Asobo Studio is extremely proud of the path A Plague Tale: Innocence has taken in one year, with Focus Home Interactive by our side,” said the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of Asobo Studio in a press release. "We can't wait to bring other adventures and strong emotional experiences!”

Related - 10 Things Players Will Only Notice In A Second Playthrough of A Plague Tale: Innocence

In December, reports came out that a sequel is in development for release in 2022, and now that the sales figures are over 1 million copies sold, it only makes sense, and it's been critically acclaimed across the board. We gave it 4.5/5 stars, and on MetaCritic, it holds an 81 rating.

A Plague Tale Innocence Rats
via Focus Home Interactive
That's a lot of rats in this one frame from A Plague Tale: Innocence

Asobo Studio has had a varied development history from licensed games like Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure and The Mummy to simulation games like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Zoo Tycoon. They also supported Ubisoft with the open-world racing title, The Crew 2. That's quite a flexible studio!

With the success of A Plague Tale: Innocence, it shows that titles from smaller AA studios can still thrive in today's gaming market. It would be great to see more developers like this create original ideas and IP that can reach a large audience.

If you're interested in checking out the game, it's currently 66% off on Steam right now, as part of the Steam Summer Sale, and it's on Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One and PC.

France has recently been a source of fantastic developer talent; Dontnod Entertainment pulled our heartstrings with the excellent Life is Strange series, and they also made Vampyr, another Focus Home Interactive hit. Arkane Studios also has the impressive-looking Deathloop on the way after their critically acclaimed series of games, Dishonored.

According to a 2019 study from The French Video Game Trade Association (via Game World Observer), there were 565 game studios based in France with 1200 games in production: 63% of them as original IP. Another interesting fact is that 54% of these French development studios are less than 5 years old! It makes you wonder what other games we'll see in the future from this European country.

Sources: Focus Home Interactive, Game World Observer

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