Sons of the Forest had a pretty incredible launch. Circumstantial evidence pretty much confirms that it made Steam crash.
As reported by Comic Book, what seemed to have happened is anyone using Steam at the point that the game launched, were immediately faced with a bunch of error codes, effectively shutting them out of using Steam.
Now, EndNight’s survival horror game didn’t actually come out on the time it was scheduled, which was the middle of the day in the US market. Its late release led to the game briefly trending on Twitter, as players were asking each other when Sons of the Forest would eventually become playable.
Steam users were hit with the code E502 L3, which is usually what comes out when a sale is so swamped with so many users that it makes Steam crash.
Of course, a few hours later Sons of the Forest has actually released, so everyone waiting and scratching their heads has gotten their chance to play it now.
Now, one strange detail from this story is that Sons of the Forest is in fact still in Early Access. That’s right, EndNight wanted to make it clear that they aren’t even actually done making Sons of the Forest yet. What that Early Access status will give EndNight Games is the opportunity to keep on working and improving the game, with the help of player feedback, without the stigma of releasing a game that isn’t quite ready yet. They can already sell the game too, with the expectation that the current price is a fraction of what it will ultimately sell for since buying it is a sort of investment. Not like a financial investment where you expect a return in the form of income or interest, but one with the expectation that the game will eventually be completed.
As of right now, looking at the Steam page, Sons of the Forest has an Overwhelmingly Positive rating, from over 10,000 reviews. It certainly seems like the game as they have it now is already plenty for gamers.
We also don’t know how many people bought this game as of yet, but as one of the fan reviews pointed out, Sons of the Forest’s launch made Steam crash, when more high profile releases like Dead Space Remake and Hogwarts Legacy did not.
It may be too early to tell for now, but Sons of the Forest may actually be a sleeper hit for 2023.
