It looks like the chance to hide in cupboards and count your terrified breaths while an apex predator stalks you may not be coming around yet again. While Alien: Isolation was a terrific game, apparently the title didn’t do well enough to make a sequel to it a sure bet.  

Tim Heaton, the studio director for Creative Assembly, explained in an interview with Games Industry that at 2.1 million in sales, the game didn’t break out. Heaton also reiterated a fact that may be too quickly taken for granted by gamers on the receiving end, that making a AAA game is an enormous undertaking and substantial investment. This means that if it doesn’t find a large audience, the likelihood is that the game in question will not be considered as viable for sequel treatment.

That’s a real shame, because it means that great, even superb games (which Alien: Isolation was)may not be given the chance to develop as a franchise if they don’t attract a large enough audience right away.

Even so, the silver lining is that a sequel is not completely off the table, even if its likelihood right now is somewhat dim. That being said, if its protagonist can survive all the odds she was faced with, maybe Alien: Isolation has a chance as well.