Indie submarine horror games get uptick in sales amid Titanic sub tragedy
Two indie video game developers saw a sudden spike in the sales of their submarine horror games amid the recent Titanic sub tragedy that kept the world holding its breath for five days.
OceanGate's submersive, named Titan, lost contact with its control center on June 18 EST a few hours after its descent. It was headed towards the Titanic shipwreck at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, some 13,000 feet underwater. The watercraft was reported missing to the US Coast Goard on 5:40 p.m. that day and on June 22, was discovered to have suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five passengers on board.
On June 21, a day before the search reached its tragic ending, game developer David Szymanski found a sudden uptick in the sales of his submarine horror game Iron Lung. The spike was equivalent to three times his usual sale but the game developer saw the feat as rather disturbing.
Szymanski shared the news on Twitter and captioned the post, "This feels so wrong." His post included a graphical representation of his game's sales in the past few days. It can be seen that there's a significant spike on June 19, the same day Titan was reported missing.
This feels so wrong pic.twitter.com/SMAKC6sOfH
— David Szymanski (@DUSKdev) June 21, 2023
Similar to the horrifying premise of the Titan sub tragedy, players of Iron Lung must navigate a strange blood ocean while trapped in a rusty and cramped vessel called "Iron Lung." The ship, according to VICE, is not built for the ocean's depth and has high chance of breaking because of the pressure.
Szymanski developed the game in March 2022. It is designed to bring fright to its players, with its dark atmosphere and the concept that death awaits you in every corner.
"I made Iron Lung the most nightmarish thing I could think of, and knowing real people are in that situation right now is pretty horrific, even if it was their own bad decisions," he added.
Another video game developer who has been getting "off-putting" clamor for its horror game amid the Titan sub tragedy is DAEMON House.
The studio's co-founder Monrad likewise took to Twitter to share how their upcoming submarine game Full Fathom saw a sudden increase in sales and wishlists. Nevertheless, the developer finds the uptick detestable.
Tagging Szymanski, Monrad tweeted, "I'm in agreement with @DUSKdev, being associated with the Titanic submarine disaster is quite off-putting."
"It's the whole benefiting from people's (almost certain) deaths that makes it feel weird," he added, noting that "people running the operation" could be in the same situation as his.
I'm in agreement with @DUSKdev, being associated with the titanic submarine disaster is quite off-putting. pic.twitter.com/a7RhMPALsj
— Monad 𒉎 (@monad_of_eirye) June 21, 2023
Full Fathom, according to its developer, is an oceanic survival horror game wherein players are tasked to "pilot a deteriorating submarine as it drifts through grim waters, keeping it maintained as it is your only lifeline in the hostile merciless ocean." Its release date is yet to be announced.
