Moon Studios Goes "Fully Independent" As Ori Game Series Crosses 15M Sales Milestone

Ori series developer Moon Studios has continued developing their action RPG No Rest for the Wicked, which launched into Early Access on Steam in April 2024. While the game's design is noticeably different and ambitious from the Ori games, No Rest for the Wicked has certainly appealed to players for its brutal combat, its maze-like interconnected map design, and its intriguing story, too.

Recently, the studio made a few announcements that gave them every reason to be in a celebratory mood. The Ori series, which includes The Blind Forest and the Will of the Wisps, has officially sold over 15 million copies since their respective releases, but there is more news the developer shared with the players.

The studio's Creative Director, Thomas Mahler, shared the news on social media and wrote in a Twitter post thanking those who supported the games: "The Ori series has now sold more than 15 Million copies. Not too shabby for a Metroidvania and a genre we were told is dead when we started to work on it!"

But that was not all. The latest Wicked Inside Showcase 2 video update for No Rest for the Wicked, in which the team provided "an exclusive deep dive" into the forthcoming content featured in The Breach update and informed players on what's next.

The studio provided a statement on the recent sale of publisher Private Division, "a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive," to an undisclosed party and, as a result, sold the rights to all their live and unreleased games under the Private Division label. Take-Two has stated in a fiscal report that they'll continue to support No Rest for the Wicked; the developer has acquired the publishing rights to the action RPG and will move forward as an independent studio.

Mahler, along with Moon Studios' co-founder Gennadiy Korol, stated in the Wicked Inside Showcase 2 video update that while "this legal process took time," despite not being able to mention any details as they were acquiring the publishing rights, this move hopes to give their players "more confidence" in their vision and have the freedom to build the game how they want. With Moon Studios now as an independent, little is known about the unnamed party who acquired the rights to Private Division's portfolio of live and unreleased games and whether the divestment was partly responsible for the delay of Tales of the Shire.