Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is a 2D metroidvania developed and published by Adglobe’s subsidiaries, Live Wire and Binary Haze Interactive. The game recently reached a new sales milestone.
What happened?
Adglobe shared the news on social media last month (spotted by Noisy Pixel), saying that Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights has sold 1.5 million units globally since its launch in June 2021.
It crossed the 1 million mark in February 2023, meaning the game took about 16 months to sell another 500k copies.
「ENDER LILIES」は、多くのお客様からご愛顧をいただき、全世界150万本を達成いたしました。
応援いただいたみなさまに心より御礼申し上げます。
続編となります「ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist」も鋭意制作中です。
今後とも宜しくお願い申し上げます。#EnderLilies#EnderMagnolia— ENDER MAGNOLIA【日本語公式】 (@EnderLilies_JP) June 27, 2024
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights received positive reviews from critics, with an average score of 86 on Metacritic. It also has a “Very Positive” rating (94%) on Steam based on more than 31k user reviews.
In March 2024, the company launched a sequel, Ender Lilies: Bloom in the Mist, which currently holds an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating (98%) on Steam based on 3.5k reviews.
Is Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights an indie game?
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is often considered an indie title by both the press and players. Nintendo included it on its “Best-selling indie games of 2021” list. However, this term cannot be applied to this game even if one wanted to.
Note: This is not an attempt to diminish the quality of Ender Lilies (it’s great!), but rather a testament to how confusing and vague the term “indie” has become. This is a topic for another article, so let’s focus on the teams behind Ender Lilies.
Adglobe is a Japanese outsourcing company that provides various development services in areas such as web systems, XR, and video games. Its clients include Bandai Namco, Cygames, FromSoftware, Sega, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Roblox, and more.
Since its inception in 2010, Adglobe has grown to over 500 employees. Its founder and CEO Hiroyuki Kobayashi | 小林宏至 (not be confused with RE and DMC producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi | 小林裕幸) was previously involved in game development at Neverland Company — the now-closed Japanese studio behind the Lufia and Rune Factory series.
Kobayashi wanted to continue making original games, so he established a subsidiary, Live Wire, in 2018. Led by former Neverland CEO Makoto Takada, it is a small studio that employs just 29 people.
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights was supposed to become the first project from the team. In addition, the studio also made Switch versions of Espgaluda II, Mushihimesama, and DoDonPachi Resurrection.
In 2020, Kobayashi established another subsidiary, publisher Binary Haze Interactive. “Adglobe is involved in a lot of different businesses, and we felt that if we did it through [our main] company, it might confuse users,” he told Famitsu in 2021, adding that the separate label should help with branding.
Binary Haze’s mission is described as “introducing a global audience to original Japanese games with unique aesthetics and deep lore.” And Ender Lilies became the first of the planned titles.
Following the successful launch of its debut project, Live Wire developed Square Enix’s farm sim RPG Harvestella and bullet hell rougelite 9th Sentinel Sisters (in Early Access). Last year, Adglobe also launched RPG Redemption Reapers.
So the Ender Lilies case is similar to Dave the Diver, a 2023 hit title with over 4 million copies sold globally. Despite being developed by Mintrocket, a subsidiary of South Korean publisher Nexon, many still labeled the game “indie” (e.g. its nomination for the “Best Independent Game” at The Game Awards 2023).