Eye of the Temple didn't turn a profit until it launched on Quest.
Initially released for PC VR in 2021, Eye of the Temple made its way to Quest last year with assistance from Salmi Games, and in a 2023 recap blog, developer Rune Skovbo Johansen shed some light on its development. Explaining that he didn't pay himself a regular salary during the three years of full-time development, Johansen was "initially slightly disappointed" in the Steam year one sales, which covered 40% of the investment.
Since then, Eye of the Temple has now turned a profit and returned 140% back on that initial investment, with 70% total revenue coming from Quest. It is a common expectation that Quest versions will outsell the PC VR versions. While Amid Evil VR was a notable exception, we've seen stories like Superhot VR's Quest port outselling the Rift version by 300%. While that doesn't mean those PC VR editions were also initially unprofitable, Johansen considers Quest "easily the most important VR platform."
However, Johansen says that while Quest week one revenue doubled Steam's week one revenue, it didn't match what he and Salmi Games hoped for. "Speaking with other VR developers in 2023, it seems that the time when Eye of the Temple launched on Quest was generally a bad period for Quest game sales," Johansen explains, later advising how Black Friday and Christmas had a big sales impact.
As for what's next, Johansen says they're no longer working on the game and that he's "done with VR for now." Instead, he's moving on to 'The Big Forest,' which is currently in early development. Featuring a strong focus on exploration with fully procedurally generated gameplay, it's described as involving "light puzzles based on connecting clues found through exploration."
We awarded top marks in our Eye of the Temple review last year. Calling it "a triumphant room-scale platformer," we believe it's secured a place among the best Meta Quest 3 games.
Eye of the Temple is a masterclass in VR-first design. It takes the responsibility of managing a guardian away from the player and ingeniously absolves the problem by weaving it into the very fabric of the game's mechanics... It's a release that demonstrates how intelligent design can work within the constraints of current technology, while ultimately sacrificing very little to do so.
Eye of the Temple is out now on the Meta Quest platform and PC VR. When asked about a potential PSVR 2 version, Johansen replied that "it doesn't seem to be in the cards."
Harry Baker
