Everyone, even if they won’t admit it to themselves, really just wants to throw on an ornate, flowing robe and make other robe-wearing individuals explode into a glorious shower of gibs. Paradox North is probably pleased about this, because it’s encouraged 500,000 downloads of Magicka Wizard Wars.
Wizard Wars hit open beta last week, letting everyone download it on Steam, but it’s been available for Early Access since last year. In its first week since it opened the floodgates, players have cast 97,704,758 spells. Most of them likely ending in someone exploding.
The open beta saw Wizard Wars expanded with a third map, an underground dwarven cave network, along with new items and spells.
The popularity of the open beta took Paradox North by surprise, and they’ve had to set up new servers to handle all the new players.
“If we could personally shake hands with each player and give them our thanks, we would, but there’s too many; it’d probably mean a hiatus from actually working on the game,” said John Hargelid, Studio Manager for Paradox North. “We’re delighted that everybody likes the game so far, but this is just the beginning for Magicka: Wizard Wars. We’ve quadrupled server capacity since last week and we’re adding more servers, ironing the creases out of the robes, making sure the Wizard entrails are the right consistency – everything it takes to make sure the game stays a strong entry in the legacy of Magicka.”
You can download it on Steam now, and I highly recommend that you do. Take a gander at our overview of some of the new stuff that’s been tossed into the mix.