‘We believe [Nightingale] has a future,’ Inflexion says as it adds crossplay and an 80% off sale

I was surprised yesterday to realize that Nightingale had patched up on my Steam Deck without a peep from the devs, but I had only to be patient: Inflexion has now dropped a Steam post as well as a video explain what’s up. And what’s up is the co-op survival sandbox RPG’s second birthday since entering early access, where it remains.

CEO Aaryn Flynn and art director Neil Thompson acknowledge that the last two years of Inflexion have been up and down thanks to the “wild ride” of the industry, but they’ve hired new staff in recent months and are working on two new projects (as previously teased last fall), which is more than we can say for a lot of other studios. Apparently “millions and millions of people” tried out the game for free on the Epic Games Store last year, which provided a nice boost, and now the devs are about to begin an 80% off sale (bringing it down to 6 bucks), though as I type this Friday morning, it’s not yet live (we assume it’ll be up at 1 p.m. EST).

Facilitating that multi-platform push is the February update, which implements a join code feature to allow players to play co-op more easily – including cross-play between Steam and EGS. We’re getting some balance updates to smooth out the “friction points” in the game too:

“We also have a host of new gameplay and balance updates! This update adds visible wear and damage to tools and clothing based on durability, improves map completion clarity and Essence Trader item presentation, and delivers major reward and balance tuning. Vault Essence rewards are doubled, and chest loot is reworked (fewer perishables, more seeds, and realm-specific item targeting with stronger Ascended rewards). Combat tuning adjusts critical damage scaling and caps, and a broad pass boosts many characteristics to make rare resources more exciting. Augments also get wording cleanup, Danu’s Cauldron returns, and several augment types now apply more consistently across their related refinement stations.”

Thompson adds one more key point during the dev talk, specifically on the topic of future Nightingale development – even development of its IP. “[W]e talk about the challenges of the games industry, and I think it’s super important that we absolutely believe in Nightingale,” he tells fans. “We believe that it has a future, but the commercial realities of game development are that we have to support this studio, right? And we have to do what what’s required to ensure that our developers are paid for what they do. So while we focus on these other projects in the short term, Nightingale remains a beacon of light for the future. I think we’re very passionate about the IP of Nightingale. We think there are so many more stories to tell within those realms, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to be able to do that again.”