I Expect You to Die (2016), the spy-themed puzzle game from Schell Games, generated $1 million in revenue between its late-2016 launch and August 2017. Now a little over a year later, the studio reports they’ve recently closed in on the $3 million mark.

Developed specif­i­cal­ly for VR, I Expect You To Die puts you in the shoes of a Bond-style secret agent who must escape deadly situations by solving puzzles that put you in direct danger, such as poison gas, bombs, and lasers. It’s a fun object-oriented game that really puts your critical thinking skills to the test while mortal danger looms over your head at every turn.

The combined figure was measured across all sales channels including Steam, the Oculus Store, the Playstation Store, and the Microsoft Store—offering support for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PSVR, and Windows VR headsets.

I Expect You to Die holds a high user rating across all stores, and while it’s a competent and extremely fun puzzler, some of the game’s financial success might also be attributed to a well-handled successive roll-out on its respective platforms. The escape room-style puzzle game originally launched on the Oculus Store in late 2016, later expanding to PSVR in December 2016, making it a launch title for Oculus Touch and a close-to-launch title for PSVR. While support for HTC Vive via Steam followed in April 2017, and Windows VR headsets via the Windows Store in February 2018—both several months after the respective headset platforms—the word was invariably out that I Expect You to Die was clearly worth the $25 price tag.

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“The team put a lot of heart and hard work into I Expect You To Die and the success we’ve achieved definitely shows our passion for this project,” says Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games. “With support from fans, gamers, and techies who have played I Expect You to Die, we’ve proved that virtual reality can become a mainstream platform and its future is looking incredibly bright.”

The only other VR game to publicly disclose that level of success is Owlchemy Labs’ Job Simulator (2016), which was revealed last year to have reached the $3 million mark.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Raphael

    2 to 4 hours of play.

    • Graham

      True – I finished it in one evening but I thoroughly enjoyed it and was pleased I had bought it

    • Alexisms

      Can we have some context for “2 to 4 hours of play”?
      Are you saying you only play the games that last the longest? Length of a game has never been an indicator of quality.

      • Raphael

        I agree that a game can be great even if it’s short. My personal preference is for games without end or very long play time. I have purchased a few exceptions to that rule though. One game has about an hour of play through but the reviews were very good.

        But in general I go for games without end or having a long play through.

  • Get Schwifty!

    Good game…. well deserves it.

  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    Well done! I think I still remember early DK1 prototype that used PC mouse for interactions, so to see them reach 3 million mark is really inspiring. I don’t think anyone prototyping DK1 games had millions of dollars in mind ;) And yet here we are :)

  • NooYawker

    I never got around to finishing this game, but it was a lot of fun. I should finish it.

  • Well deserved. I understood it was a great game since when I played its demo on the DK2

  • Qayotee

    That’s great news! Beat saber and firewall zero hour could potentielly be even bigger successes going forward. And with 3 Valve games on the way and respawn secret game…well I like how things are developing.