Heavy Rain sales to top 1.5 million, says Cage

It's official: Heavy Rain is a hit. The critically acclaimed game got off to a solid start in February, selling more than 200,000 copies in just four days in the US. Now, the head of the developer of the PlayStation 3-exclusive psychological thriller is crowing about its worldwide success--and how much he expects it to sell by year's end.

"We have sold more than 1 million copies of Heavy Rain worldwide," Quantic Dream cofounder and co-CEO David Cage told German site Play3.de. "That was a surprise to many, since estimated sales were between 200,000 to 300,000 units. We estimate that by the end of the year, we will have sold 1.5 million copies and are very pleased with the reception."

Cage was especially pleased with the sales, given that Heavy Rain didn't conform to normal game genres. "Our game isn't an action game, it's not a role-playing game, [and] it's not an adventure. It isn't in any one genre. When you create a new, convention-busting game to the market, it's always a risk, both for the developer and the publisher."

Heavy Rain was developed by Quantic Dream, the Paris-based shop behind 2005's Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit) for the PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. Like that critically acclaimed title, Heavy Rain eschews normal game genres for a more cinematic approach, focusing on complex storytelling and emotion via realistic graphics. Heavy Rain follows the pursuit of a mysterious serial murderer, with players controlling several characters who must collect clues in a film-noir-style setting to crack the case.

The first expansion for Heavy Rain, The Taxidermist, was released last week on the PlayStation Network. More Heavy Rain Chronicles episodes are planned throughout the course of the year, and the game will support the PlayStation Move motion-control system when it is released this holiday season.