Ninety-one players. Zero reviews. That’s the launch-day scoreboard for Kiln, the newest release from Double Fine Productions — the studio behind Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, and Costume Quest. Published by Xbox Game Studios. Available on Game Pass. And apparently playing to a near-empty room.

Kiln is an online multiplayer pottery party brawler. You sculpt ceramic warriors on a pottery wheel, then send them into 4v4 matches to douse the opposing team’s kiln. Pot shape determines playstyle — bigger pots carry more water but move slower. The concept started as a 2017 game jam idea and got a full reveal at January’s Xbox Developer Direct. It’s genuinely creative, the kind of weird that built Double Fine’s reputation.

But launch day tells a grim story. According to Steam data, Kiln peaked at 91 concurrent players on April 23. No user reviews had been submitted. The game sits at $17.99, discounted 10% from $19.99 — a price tag that doesn’t exactly scream “major first-party release.”

Double Fine addressed the review vacuum in a blog post, explaining they didn’t want critics entering the game without community-created content already in it. A defensible call for a multiplayer title — but it also means Kiln launched with zero critical coverage to drive discovery.

The game did get an open beta April 9–11 on Steam, and a post-launch roadmap promises new maps, cosmetics, and content drops. It’s also on Game Pass, so Steam concurrency doesn’t capture the full picture — console and cloud players aren’t counted in that 91.

Still. This is a first-party Xbox release from one of the most beloved studios in the industry. Ninety-one concurrent Steam players and dead silence from the publisher’s marketing machine is a brutal opening frame. Kiln may yet find its audience. But it’s starting from deep in the hole.

Sources