Hypercharge, a whimsical motion determine shooter, simply went from near-obscurity to changing into one of many prime 10 sellers on PS5 over the weekend, and it’s all due to the builders’ honesty. Every single day, hundreds of recent video games are launched on main storefronts, and the unhappy actuality is that almost all received’t make it. Reside service titles like Fortnite already hoard a lot of the consumer base on any given platform. Some video games earn nicely beneath no matter it took to make them within the first place. And so we arrive at Hypercharge: Unboxed, a third-person shooter the place gamers management motion figures, which was ported on the finish of Could to Xbox and PlayStation.
Initially launched in 2020 on Steam, Hypercharge arrived on the scene with loads of fanfare. Footage of the sport periodically went viral on social media as onlookers have been delighted by the prospect of a recreation that appeared straight out of Pixar’s Toy Story. Steam customers have granted Hypercharge a “Very Constructive’” ranking, with one prime evaluate on the platform declaring the expertise “pure childhood pleasure.” Not unhealthy for a recreation made by a workforce of 5 folks.
However that was years in the past. In 2025, the shooter panorama is extra aggressive than ever, which implies that success was not assured for Hypercharge. Regardless of launching with cross-platform assist, plainly curiosity within the recreation was minimal firstly of 2025. On Steam, the top-voted evaluate posted on Could twelfth of this yr declared, “Sport is lifeless.”
Gamers on console quickly realized this was the case, with a minimum of one participant taking to social media to voice their dissatisfaction. This participant claimed there weren’t sufficient gamers to kind a full foyer, and that there have been “actually 5 folks on-line.”
This prompted developer Digital Cybercherries to reply, and the submit was surprisingly earnest. The makers of the motion determine recreation acknowledged that there weren’t many individuals having fun with the sport, however that they have been OK with that as long as the sport introduced somebody, someplace pleasure.
The builders adopted up this submit with an extended clarification the place they stated that in the end, they’d made the sport they’d have needed as youngsters.
“Making video games has by no means been about getting wealthy, changing into well-known, or having probably the most concurrent gamers”
“Making video games has by no means been about getting wealthy, changing into well-known, or having probably the most concurrent gamers,” the submit reads. “To us, being wealthy means waking up day-after-day to do what we love with the folks we love […] so long as we will pay the payments, feed our households, and maintain creating what we care about, then yeah, in our eyes, we’re already wealthy.”
The devs’ show of vulnerability exploded on social media, the place the submit has accrued over 600,000 views. This consideration was sufficient to catapult the sport into the highest 10 sellers on PS5 over the weekend.
“Picked it up yesterday to assist you guys on PS5 myself!” one response reads. “I’m gonna get this recreation after I receives a commission once more,” one other says.
Whereas Hypercharge appears to have fallen out that bestseller record now, it’s nonetheless at quantity 5 within the bestselling new releases for PS5. The whirlwind of consideration was nonetheless welcome by the small developer.
“To be sincere, it has been surreal,” Joe Henson, head of promoting for Hypercharge, informed epicgamejourney over e-mail. “We’re a workforce of 5, with no writer, no outdoors funding, and no huge advertising price range. Simply 5 pals who grew up loving video games and needed to make one which meant one thing to us. To see Hypercharge go viral and now stand alongside main AAA titles because the #5 bestselling new launch on PlayStation is one thing we by no means anticipated. It has genuinely touched us.”
Henson didn’t share particular participant base numbers with epicgamejourney, solely noting that the sport doesn’t have a “big” participant base however that there are millions of gamers throughout all platforms. He additionally reiterated that the builders take into account the sport extra of a co-op expertise, and the net performance is extra of a bonus.
“I fully perceive it may be irritating in case you’re attempting to leap into on-line matches and might’t discover anybody,” Henson says. “I hear that. However I don’t assume it’s honest to name a recreation a failure when it’s doing precisely what it got down to do: provide a stable offline and native co-op expertise, with on-line as a pleasant further, not the principle focus.”
As for what’s subsequent, it’s enterprise as regular. There are bugs to repair, and updates to dole out to make sure cross-platform is working as meant. However the workforce continues to be taking a while to bask within the accomplishment.
“It has been a monumental process, however one we’re extremely happy with,” Henson says.
Hypercharge: Unboxed is offered on PC, Xbox Collection X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Swap.
