Today marks a great day for both the App Store and the Australian games development industry, and Halfbrick has never been prouder to be a part of both! After just 74 days on sale, Fruit Ninja has stormed past the one million copies sold mark, solidifying its position as one of the highest rated, biggest selling and most popular iPhone games of all time.
Fruit Ninja began as a simple gameplay concept from lead designer Luke Muscat. During a round of game pitches that Halfbrick conducts on a regular basis, Luke brought forth Fruit Ninja. On October 15th 2009, the company knew that it was something special, something that could be a huge iPhone hit with the correct execution.
Thankfully, the fruit enthusiasts were correct! Commencing development in early 2010, Fruit Ninja was a smooth ride, with all the elements of visceral and juicy combat falling into place perfectly. With continuous playtesting ensuring the gameplay remained tight and satisfying, Fruit Ninja was released on the App Store in its original form on April 21st, 2010 for US$0.99. In two days it shot to the top ten paid apps in Australia, and the success began to spread around the world. It has reached the #1 top paid app of any kind in seven countries, and has been in the top ten USA paid apps for 60 out of the 74 days since release, where it happily resides to this day.
The continued support of Fruit Ninja has been modeled on regular free updates. Five updates have been released so far to add additional content and features based on feedback from the fans and written reviews around the world. The team isn’t stopping at the one million mark – there will be more updates to ensure Fruit Ninja remains a modern, fresh and extremely fun iPhone game!
Halfbrick consists of families, friends and fun. With almost 40 employees, the top priority is to ensure that everyone can pay their bills, feed their families and continue making great games in a awesome environment. There are no secrets, just a group of talented individuals who want to provide top quality games for a worldwide audience!
So what’s next? Fruit Ninja HD is being submitted to the iPad app store today for release the week of July 11th, and will expand on the current Fruit Ninja gameplay with amazing HD graphics and two new multiplayer split screen modes. It’s the next step to the Fruit Ninja legacy, and as per usual we are committed to ensuring it receives the same attention with updates and new content as the current iPhone version.
Everyone at Halfbrick would like to sincerely thank Apple, the countless gaming websites for their coverage, the fans who wrote to us with words of support and of course every person who purchased the game!