“People are loving it”: Internationally renowned Czech video game gearing up for sequel
Czech-made video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance achieved massive success at home and abroad when it was released in 2018. Warhorse Studios, the games developers are gearing up for the highly anticipated sequel to be released. Tobias Stolz, spokesman for the gaming studio, told me more about what’s to come.
“Kingdom Come: Deliverance (KCD) sold over six million copies to date. One could say that this is really successful for a gaming studio from the Czech Republic. We weren’t expecting this huge success even though we really trusted in our product, and KCD has become a classic game. Even six years after its release, it’s smashing records – people are playing it and buying it. It’s become an evergreen, which is great for our team, studio, and maybe even the Czech gaming industry.”
For our listeners who don’t know about the game, can you tell us a little bit about it?
“KCD is a role playing game. You are playing the role of Henry, the son of a blacksmith who gets thrown into a civil war. The interesting thing about KCD is that it’s based on history and real events that took place in medieval Bohemia in the year 1403. The story we are telling is based on historical events, so as a player you travel back in time to mediaeval Bohemia and see how history could have happened.
“To make sure that we are being historically accurate, we have in house historians and also work closely with universities and others who have told us about medieval life. I strongly believe that KCD is the closest you can get if you want to see what the Middle Ages would have looked like.”
I know you touched on it briefly, but can you tell me a bit more about how the game did internationally? Why was this significant for the Czech gaming industry?
“KCD crossed borders for sure. While developing the game, we had it in mind that we wanted it to be an international product and really aimed for a broader audience. The biggest gaming markets are in the USA, Germany, and Japan. Numbers wise, it sold most copies in the USA, but percentage wise, Germany is the strongest. The reason is probably because the game takes place in Bohemia, so the game and the story and everything we are showing is more common to the German gamer.
“It’s a funny story, but we actually helped to raise tourism in the region that KCD takes place in. It takes place south of Prague, and a bunch of German, French, and English tourists travelled to the countryside of the Czech Republic to see where the game takes place.”
The second edition, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is on its way out now, correct?
“The sequel to KCD was announced on April 18th, six years after the release of the first game. You need to consider that our studio, which consists of 250 people, has a philosophy that we only work on one project before going on to the next. We had to work on fixing some things from KCD that came out in 2018 – downloadable content, bug fixing, and quality assurance. The team switched to the sequel in 2019. We’ve announced the sequel with a big bang – a 14 minute long trailer where the developers explained what’s coming, and we even had a concert in Kutná Hora, which is where the second game is taking place.
“Knock on wood, people are loving it, and this is a really good sign. It’s becoming a bit viral right now because people were really waiting for this game, so we are so happy about this.”
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