by
William D’Angelo
, posted 3 hours ago / 729 Views

Developer Jumpship released its science-fiction adventure game, Somerville, last November on the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC via Steam, as well as Xbox Game Pass.

Dino Patti, Jumpship co-founder, in an interview with VideoGames.si said it had a pretty good deal with Microsoft, however, having the game day one on Xbox Game Pass did hurt its sales.

“We did a pretty good deal,” said Patti. “I also think it hurts sales. Because a lot of people just go in and try it and they don’t invest. If they don’t like the first 10 minutes? That’s it. Also, if you don’t make the first 10 minutes amazing, maybe it’s also a problem.

“I think [Game Pass] is okay. It’s not my favorite. My favorite is the old premium model where I sell you on some video, on big images, and earn your $30. And then after that, I have to deliver. I don’t need to get money out of you later.”

Our own Lee Mehr in his review of Somerville stated, “If I had one all-encompassing diagnosis of Somerville it would be termed ‘plagued by detail.’When storytelling, atmosphere, and albeit rudimentary gameplay complement each other it can lead to some fascinating moments. But then, you see the cracks begin to form outside of those: under-polished instances when odd bugs occur, the way some puzzles are clumsily handled, the overly-vague story taking confusing creative turns, not being able to pet the dog (currently as the dad), and so on.

“Those foundational fissures keep propagating the further I went into this 5-hour journey.  The fault isn’t with Jumpship utilizing Playdead’s successful template, but in forgetting to incorporate the pedigree alongside it.”

A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

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