Far Far West sells 1 million copies, publisher rejects generative AI

Far Far West cleared 1 million copies sold in less than two weeks after its April 28 Steam Early Access launch, a pace that turned a strange little co-op shooter into one of the sharper breakout stories in the indie market. Fireshine Games had already built the runway: more than 700,000 wishlists on Steam, more than 400,000 players before launch, and a 98% Overwhelmingly Positive demo rating.

The selling point was never subtle. Fireshine described Far Far West as a chaotic 1-4 player co-op shooter set in a futuristic wild west, where robot cowboys hunt bounties, sling spells, and fight undead enemies. It launched at £15.99, €19.99 and $19.99, a price that put it in the impulse-buy range for Steam players already circling the page and waiting for a reason to jump in. The Steam store page has shown overwhelmingly positive user reviews, which only added more fuel to the early surge.

What makes the milestone more interesting is what Fireshine did with it. The publisher said it would not work with partners relying on generative AI or generative art, while drawing a line between those tools and narrower productivity software like code completion. In a crowded co-op market where a lot of games try to compete on feature lists alone, that is more than a branding flourish. Fireshine used a commercial win to make a public judgment about what kind of studio relationships it wants, and it did so from a position of strength rather than caution.

That strength matters because Fireshine is not a tiny unknown label. The London-based company says it was established in 2014, is part of the EG7 group, and has already shipped or supported games including Core Keeper, Shadows of Doubt, Len’s Island and Popucom. On the developer side, Evil Raptor is a French independent studio founded in 2020, an eight-person team that previously made Pumpkin Jack and Akimbot. A million-selling early access hit from a studio that small is not normal, and that is exactly why the result landed so hard.

Fireshine has also already pushed the game forward with its first major update, which included a progression overhaul, XP changes and quality-of-life improvements. Far Far West now sits in the same conversation as other rapid early access breakouts like Dune: Awakening, which reached 1 million sales in 18 days. The lesson is hard to miss: speed still matters, trust still matters, and in this market a publisher’s anti-AI line can become part of the pitch when the game is already winning on its own.