Magicka's sales have been strong enough to conjure up a sequel. In a recent interview with Joystiq.com, publisher Paradox Interactive dished the dirt on the game's sales numbers. Magicka "sold over 30,000 copies in the first 24 hours" of it's release. The five dollar "Vietnam" expansion pack, which moved the game setting from a fantasy realm to the Vietnam war (Seriously!) has reportedly sold "well over 100,000" units. This comes as no surprise to us. We really liked the game, giving it a 4.5 out of 5 in our Co-Op Review.
Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester told Joystiq.com that a sequel is a "when," not an "if." He also said that the game would use a different engine, acknowledging he many bugs that plagued the title when it launched:
It was super buggy at release... We addressed most of them in the first week, but there are still issues with laptops and a few other things. It's due to the engine that we produced the game on
Wester had some elusive comments on the state of a console release for Magicka: "We wanna do XBLA or nothing for the Xbox (360)." Apparently "or nothing" means something different in Sweden (that's where Paradox Entertainment hails from). When Wester was asked about if they would consider a retail release which would include any patches and DLC, he said "That's a possibility."
As for the beleaguered PSN, Wester made it sound like a no brainer, actually saying: "PSN should be a no brainer, and I'm saying should because ... I can't really say anything more at the moment... I'll let you know as soon as I can say more."
It looks as if Magicka will be making a jump to consoles, as well as getting a sequel. For fans of co-op games, that's a good thing. Magicka is out now on the PC. It supports 4 local, online, and LAN co-op.