@#$%! Epic has stopped production on a Bulletstorm sequel. Developer People Can Fly were working on a follow-up to the ribald shooter before Epic bossmen moved them to a new project. We know that the game didn't meet sales expectations, even though it was widely praised by critics. The game failed to hit projected numbers, despite including early access to the Gears of War 3 beta.
Epic president, Mike Capps, had this to say to GameSpot AU:
I think there's more to do with Bulletstorm. Heck, it kind of ended wanting more. I'd love to see another project, but right now we don't have anything to talk about.
"Kind of ended wanting more?" I was ready for 10 more hours. Capps went on to blame poor PC sales on those damn dirty pirates, but also admitted the PC port was lacking:
We made a PC version of Bulletstorm, and it didn't do very well on PC and I think a lot of that was due to piracy. It wasn't the best PC port ever, sure, but also piracy was a pretty big problem.
A quick peek at VGChartz shows that Bulletstorm sold 880k units on the 360 console, 370k for the PS3, and only 110k on PC. Maybe that Gears 3 beta key was a bigger help than expected?
I'm more than a little dissapointed. Bulletstorm was one of my favorite new IPs from 2011. It earned a 4 out of 5 in our Co-Op Review for it's co-op feature, the ultra-violent Anarchy Mode. I gave it an impressive 4.5 out of 5 for the overall score. The graphics, environments, skill shot system, and ridiculous writing all tickled my fancy just right. And that part of my fancy is not easily tickled.
Epic hasn't announced what new project People Can Fly are currently working on, but if it has co-op, you can be sure we'll cover it. Until then, we can only hope that Epic returns to Bulletstorm someday. Maybe next time they'll include a co-op campaign.