Mizkif says he lost $290k making “failed” video game

Twitch streamer Mizkif says he’s lost nearly $300,000 due to poor sales for his game, Unrooted – but explained why he thinks it was worth it, anyway.

The OTK co-founder revealed in a YouTube video titled: “I failed Again” that after two weeks on Steam, his game has only sold 3,000 copies. Despite the title’s positive reviews, it hasn’t caught fire like its direct inspiration, Jump King, did in 2020.

In his video explaining the situation, Mizkif broke down the costs to make the game, which totaled $302,880. That number encompassed paying employees to create the game over five years and a Switch giveaway.

In total sales, the game made $24,099.9 in profit after Steam took its 33% cut, which was split with the employees who have a 50% share of the total revenue. This left Mizkif with $12,049.95 in profit, meaning he has lost $290,930.05 so far with his venture.

Despite the massive loss, he says that making the platformer was still worth it, but he isn’t exactly thrilled with the lack of sales.

“I’m obviously very upset. I did not expect this game to do this poorly. However, after reflecting on it and kind of realizing where the flaws were… I do understand why it didn’t do as well. Ten percent yield sucks on your investment,” he said.

Mizkif explained that there were major flaws in his vision and the game itself. Unrooted is a difficult platformer and, in his opinion, its difficulty might have scared off the general gaming audience.

He confirmed in the video that checkpoints are coming to the game, something that he was initially against, to hopefully entice more players to check it out.

Mizkif also pointed out how 3D platformers like Chained Together are all the rage right now, so he was behind the curve on what streamers and general audiences want from the platforming genre.

The OTK creator said it is still “cool” to have a game that he created out in the wild, and that it might bring in some money later down the road.

“I am going to look back at this in a few years and I’m going to be very happy,” Mizkif said.

Mizkif is just one in a line of content creators dipping their checkbooks into game development. YouTuber ‘videogamedunkey’ opened a game publisher in 2022 and released Animal Well in early 2023, and OTK is developing an RPG game.