The Witness Sells 100,000 Copies, Xbox One Version Being Considered

The Witness has sold "substantially" more than 100,000 copies across PlayStation 4 and PC in its first week, generating more than $5 million in revenue, creator Jonathan Blow of developer Thekla announced today in a blog post. We don't know if the PS4 or PC version is selling better, as Blow said he signed agreements saying he would not disclose unit sales by platform. However, he said sales on both platforms are "strong" and no one platform is dominating the other when it comes to sales.

As Blow said earlier, the $5 million that The Witness made in one week is quite a bit more than what his previous game Braid made during its entire first year from August 2008-September 2009. Note that when Braid launched, it was exclusive to Xbox 360. Additionally, The Witness sells for $40, while Braid launched at a price of $15.

"By number of units, the first week of each individual platform [for The Witness] handily beats Braid's first-week of sales," Blow said. "(Witness on PC by itself beat Braid's first week by a decent margin, and Witness on PSN by itself beat Braid's first week by a decent margin, counting only by number of units). This is great because as price goes up, naturally the number of units sold goes down. So the fact that we beat Braid by units, more than doubly, is a really nice success."

Overall, The Witness is "doing great," Blow said. However, the $5 million does not completely cover development costs, as some revenue goes to storefronts and there are taxes to pay.

"However, it is looking like, as time goes on, we should break even and make a comfortable safety margin on top of that, which will allow us to make more nice games in the future," Blow said. "Unless some kind of world economic disaster happens."

Blow also said that Thekla will in the near future begin to investigate the possibility of bringing The Witness to other platforms. Those up for "serious" consideration include iOS, Android, Xbox One, and OS X. An Xbox One version of The Witness wouldn't be a big surprise, as the game was rated for the system last month.

Finally, Blow said making money was not the main goal for The Witness.

"I want to make clear that we did not make this game in order to make money," he said. "We were trying to build a beautiful / interesting / intricate thing, first and foremost. The money just helps us stay in business in order to build new things. It is very easy on the Internet to read a financial posting like this cynically, so I urge folks out there not to do that."

GameSpot scored The Witness a 9/10.

"There are still things about The Witness I can't make sense of--some clues I might never notice, and some puzzles I might never solve," critic Mike Mahardy said in his review. "But the hints are there. It might not all be clear at first, but that's okay, because I'm always learning."

For more on The Witness, check out some other recent news stories below.

• The Witness Is Even Harder for Color Blind and Hearing-Impaired Gamers
• The Witness Dev Working on Fix for Reported Motion Sickness Problems