List of big releases last week: GTA V on PC; Mortal Kombat X; Titan Souls; Goat Simulator on Xbox One…?
Goat Simulator is a very strange beast. Cooked up by Coffee Stain Studios in a couple of weeks as a joke prototype during an in-house game jam, the idea was originally for a variation of QWOP in which the player controlled the four limbs of the goat independently. Understandably, this mechanism would have resulted in utter chaos, and was quickly abandoned. So once Coffee Stain had dropped that frankly ludicrous idea they re-imagined the game with a Tony Hawk-esque engine, where instead of a youth with baggy trousers, you play as an out of control goat at breakneck-speed… right.
Still with us? Good. Goat Simulator is actually as absurdly successful as it is, well, just absurd. While SteamSpy figures aren’t exactly gospel, at the time of writing Goat Simulator has been purchased just over 1.6 million times (since its original release this time last year). According to SteamSpy, Grand Theft Auto V has been purchased 1.55 million times since release – admittedly that was only five days ago, but still – we’re chalking that up as a moral victory for Goat Simulator.
Since its initial Windows release, Goat Simulator has found a gap in the fence and wandered onto a number of other platforms, including OS X, Linux, Android and iOS. Last week, during all the excitement, Goat Simulator was released on Xbox One on the 17th April 2015. While strange mods are commonplace on Steam, and childish oddities are commonplace on mobile platforms, does a release on Xbox One legitimise the world’s premier Goat Simulation software? Not really, it’s still bloody ridiculous. But it’s cheap, and hilarious, and if you’ve got kids they’ll go crazy for it. Just don’t expect too much from it; these are Coffee Stain Studios’ own words:
“Goat Simulator is a small, broken and stupid game. It was made in a couple of weeks so don’t expect a game in the size and scope of GTA with goats. In fact, you’re better off not expecting anything at all actually. To be completely honest, it would be best if you’d spend your $10 on a hula hoop, a pile of bricks, or maybe a real-life goat.”
