House Flipper was a hugely popular surprise addition to the Xbox Game Pass library when it joined the service back in June, so we reached out to developer Frozen District to learn more about the Xbox Game Pass experience.
There is something just incredibly relaxing about renovating the houses of House Flipper — getting rid of the rubbish, cleaning away the dirt, repainting the walls; it all combines for a laid-back, enjoyable gameplay experience. Clearly we weren’t the only ones who thought so, as House Flipper picked up over 42,000 extra TrueAchievements players in the time since joining Xbox Game Pass. We reached out to developer Frozen District to learn more about the experience of bringing House Flipper to the service.
House Flipper had a great success with its surprise addition to Xbox Game Pass
“It definitely helped us to expand our community, and we’re all here for it! Many new people are eager to talk and share their experiences, which is excellent,” says Patryk “Roumyan” Przybyła, Frozen District’s head of social media. “We’re happy we’ve been able to make it happen!” As for the experience of having the game joining the Xbox Game Pass service, Przybyła adds, “it was surprisingly good! The game dev industry tends to be a little unpredictable, so it’s usually quite difficult to do something for the first time because you don’t ‘t really know what to expect. In this case, the Microsoft team made it really easy to figure stuff out. They’re the best of the best!”
It’s always interesting to hear how these arrangements to bring a game to Xbox Game Pass come about, so we asked Przybyła for more info. “At Frozen District, creating games is about having fun, constantly improving, and exploring our options,” he tells us. “We’re a part of a PlayWay Group,” — a successful Polish company behind a number of simulation games. “They are the ones who told us about this opportunity and offered to help with making it happen,” Przybyła says. “We felt like joining Xbox Game Pass might be an amazing opportunity to show our game to a broader audience, so we just went for it!”
“Of course!” Przybyła continues, when we ask whether this experience with Xbox Game Pass would make the House Flipper team more inclined to have future games join the service too. “Overall, it was a great experience, so it would be foolish of us not to do it again sometime soon!” And for those of you who are coming to the end of House Flipper and are hoping for more renovation sims on the horizon, it’s good news: “As I mentioned earlier, [Xbox Game Pass] made our community bigger, allowing us to gather more feedback in preparations for the release of House Flipper 2,” Przybyła explains. “The more people, the more ideas and suggestions we get, which is great given that our past experiences play a BIG part in the development process.”
House Flipper’s success on Xbox Game Pass was followed by that of PowerWash Simulator — PowerWash Simulator’s Game Pass launch hosed down Ori, Hades, and more — proving that there’s more than enough demand for such relaxing games. “Most simulation games are doing a great job when it comes to making the stress go away,” Przybyła says. “Not to mention it’s just satisfying to see the effects of your work right away — you know how all those YouTube videos about cleaning carpets went viral? I feel like it works the exact same way! It’s always heart-warming to see our players stating that House Flipping helps to ease their anxiety!”
How did you find House Flipper? Did you find yourself happily knocking down walls hours after you’d said “just one more house?” Was it a game you discovered thanks to Xbox Game Pass? Let us know in the comments!