This family friendly multiplayer game from Sydney's Cranky Watermelon has been in the Nintendo Switch charts since launch
Two years after its release, the couch co-op fighting game BOOMERANG FU has sold 500,000 units across all platforms, an achievement that caught developer Paul Kopetko by surprise.
The relatively low profile game by an Australian team has been quietly dominating the Nintendo Switch charts, and it’s just surpassed a significant sales milestone.
“It’s been, for me, phenomenally successful," said Kopetko.
“It’s not the most popular game in the world by any means but it has been far more popular than I thought it ever would be, it went far beyond my expectations.”
The game features art direction by Julian Wilton of Massive Monster, the developers of CULT OF THE LAMB, whose style is all through Boomerang Fu.
Kopetko , the founder of the Sydney-based studio Cranky Watermelon, said the success of Boomerang Fu is partly due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
“Boomerang Fu is a local multiplayer game designed for the couch co-op experience, and its release coincided with COVID, and not a lot of people could have friends over.”
“[I received] so many nice emails from families who got to bond together while they were stuck inside by playing Boomerang Fu for hours.”
He also credits its ongoing success to the power of word-of-mouth marketing and how regular discounts can amplify it.
“The fact that we’re in the chart so much on some of the stores is really surprising and interesting to me.”
“It generally just happens when we go on sale…if we do decent discounts then we pop into the charts and we linger there for a little bit.”
“What really surprised me was that in our second year we sold more copies than the first year, I was expecting day one to be the biggest day and then it will all be a slow long tail of sales at that point.”
While Boomerang Fu has been successful across all platforms, the Nintendo Switch has been the most popular choice for players, with the game maintaining its position in various charts since its release.
“I think that’s because Boomerang Fu supports up to six players…and people who own Switch’s tend to have a lot more controllers because of the two Joy-Cons, as well as it being a more family-friendly platform for younger kids or people that want to invite older relatives to play games together,” said Kopetko
Kopetko said the game's commercial success had afforded him time to focus on what’s next.
“It’s really fantastic for just allowing me to both keep working in games and to work on my own ones specifically as well.”
“It’s nice to have the luxury to take my time with that a little bit rather than having to scramble to get something out the door so I can keep paying my rent.”
As for what fans can expect next from Cranky Watermelon, we will just have to wait and see.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in the last couple of years really enjoying collaborative co-op experiences…playing things like Valheim, Deep Rock Galactic or Among us.”
“So I think accessibility and social interaction are always going to be a core part of Cranky Watermelon games in the future, but I’m not sure exactly what form that will take yet.”
