The cooperative game Dear Passengers from Kyiv studio Flexus Games has entered the top 25 most anticipated projects on Steam in the first two days after its announcement, which users most often add to their wishlist. The developers claim that they reached 1 million wishlists organically, without involving paid advertising or marketing campaigns.
The cooperative game Dear Passengers from Kyiv studio Flexus Games has entered the top 25 most anticipated projects on Steam in the first two days after its announcement, which users most often add to their wishlist. The developers claim that they reached 1 million wishlists organically, without involving paid advertising or marketing campaigns.
This is stated in the developers' message on Steam.
The debut trailer for Dear Passengers quickly went viral on Western social media, garnering millions of views. Foreign gamers were drawn to the concept of chaotic cooperative gameplay, but it wasn’t without controversy.
Some in the community criticized the developers for the specific humor in the video. In particular, they noticed the inscription «Epst. J» above the pilot’s head, which is an obvious reference to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Additionally, in one scene, a character slaps and throws a passenger who looks a lot like former US President Donald Trump off a plane. While some players saw this as an element of absurd satire, others called the use of such references an inappropriate tool for promoting the game.
Dear Passengers is a cooperative game in the so-called friendslop genre, in which users take on the roles of the crew of the plane of the «worst airline in the world» and try to cope with the chaos during the flight. Players must pilot the plane and maintain order in the cabin: serve passengers, put out fires and resolve emergencies before they lead to disaster.
Earlier, dev.ua received an exclusive comment from Flexus Games founder Semen Kozyura regarding current results and development plans. «We are preparing a demo for Gamescom, where we will be at the stand with Ukrainian games. We will release a public demo a little later. Ukrainian localization, of course, will be,» he said.
