Among Us is a viral success, garnering countless hours of playtime from millions of players who discovered the game in recent years. 2020 proved to be a massive year for Among Us developer Innersloth and changed the company's perspective entirely about the game. Before Among Us became a successful title, Innersloth was preparing to move on to a brand-new project.
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Innersloth's Among Us blew up online and attracted many into a unique social deduction experience. Many Twitch streamers would try out Among Us, sharing another potential game for viewers to consider while spending time indoors. The resurgence would allow Innersloth to develop more content and updates for Among Us into 2022.
In a new episode of Overcome's Visionaries podcast, Innersloth co-founder Marcus Bromander revealed the development team actually abandoned Among Us in 2019 before the game went viral the following year. Since the game experienced tremendous growth in 2020, development of Among Us would start up once more. "At the start of 2019, we had put out our third map and had done enough bug fixes, the game functioned, and we were like 'alright, that’s it, no more, time to work on something else,'" Bromander said. "Then when Among Us took off again we were like we should ride the wave."
Originally, Innersloth planned to work on a sequel, Among Us 2, to expand on the foundation of the first game with major improvements. Bromander adds, "I’m like, should we do Among Us 2? Or should we update the game that everyone is already playing? And that’s what we ended up settling with." The game's financial success and online growth allowed Innersloth to continue developing the original title and work on updates previously planned for a sequel. Innersloth would begin work on console versions of Among Us in 2020, which saw the Nintendo Switch version release in December of that year. One year later, PlayStation and Xbox versions would release to expand the player base even further.
The timeline of Among Us is filled with success that came seemingly out of nowhere, and Innersloth made the most out of that boom period to ensure the game continues to succeed. Among Us was available when players needed a new online title to enjoy with others when circumstances dissuaded in-person events and gatherings. Additionally, Among Us VR could introduce new features and recapture the freshness of the original title.
Innersloth should be commended for its efforts and continued support of the player community. Among Us continues to thrive in 2022, and the VR version should introduce even more players into the fray.
Among Us is available now for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The VR version releases in holiday 2022 for Meta Quest 2, PC via SteamVR.
Source: Dexerto