sales of a video game with a similar scenario take off

The Titan’s oxygen reserves could be depleted by 1:08 p.m. on Thursday. HANDOUT / AFP

Explore with a team of researchers and prisoners the abyss in a submarine, all without giving in to fear of the depths. This is the scenario of video game horrific Iron Lung, which takes the player into an immersive experience where he must navigate an ocean of blood, on an unknown planet. In recent days, this chilling tale is getting closer news about the Titan submarinewhich carried tourists near the wreck of the Titanic before disappearing.

Read alsoMissing submarine: who are the five people on board the Titan?

No news of the machine since last Sunday, the search continues. And the fascination for this rescue operation has an unexpected side effect: for the past week, sales of Iron Lung, available on the Steam platform, have taken off. “I’m horrified», testifies on Twitter the game’s creator and developer, David Szymanski.

The latter shared a graph on his account, which shows a peak in sales of the game recorded on June 20. Steam Spy, a website that estimates the sales of video games available on said platform, estimates the number of Iron Lung owners at between 100,000 and 200,000.

And the page dedicated to the game on Steam has seen its comments section explode in recent hours. Most refer to the disappearance of the tourist submarine. “A fun and wholesome experiment that costs $250,000 to replicate in real life“, quips a user, referring to the price of the dive offered by OceanGate Expeditions.

This company is at the origin of tourist explorations, such as that carried out by the Titan submarine, in the area of ​​the sinking of the Titanic. “ Based on a true story“Laconically adds another player about the scenario of Iron Lung. In total, more than 5,000 reviews were posted on the page in question.

Unhealthy Fascination

“I catch the black humor about this story and the one of the titanicbut I designed Iron Lung to make the player experience as nightmarish as possible“, reacted David Szymanski, before completing:” Knowing that real people are in this situation right now terrifies me, even if it was their own decision no one deserves to die like this“. And if efforts to find the submarine continue, the Titan’s oxygen supplies could be depleted by 1:08 p.m. Thursday.

Image from the horror game Iron Lung, the plot of which takes place in a submarine, where the player accompanies a team of researchers exploring an ocean of blood on an unknown planet. David Szymansky

This is not the first time that dark news has triggered an unhealthy fascination among the general public and led to a renewed interest in a video game. Already during the Coronavirus epidemic, the apocalyptic simulation game Plague Inc, whose goal is to develop a deadly virus to create a pandemic, broke a sales record nearly eight years after its release.