iPhone's Flight Control Exceeds 700,000

The concept for the iPhone game Flight Control is simple: guide aircraft to their respective runways safely by tracing their flight paths with your finger. It's a concept that's easy to grasp, and combined with a low price and strong execution by Australian developer Firemint, the game has been able to top sales of 700,000 units in less than two months, the studio reported today. The game launched on March 6 and sells for 99 cents in the U.S. In a comprehensive report (pdf) outlining what it called "unofficial" sales data, Firemint said a bulk of the sales occurred from March 23 to April 19, when the game sold over 587,000 units worldwide via Apple's digital App Store. The large majority of the sales during that three-week period originated in the U.S., which garnered 57 percent of global sales. Sales in Great Britain made up 17 percent of sales and other territories made up four percent and below. Firemint estimated that peak global daily sales were over 35,000 units. Firemint is also currently working to complete Firemint Real Racing, a 3D racing game that has been generating positive preview buzz among consumer press outlets. The studio also said today that it has chosen to delay Real Racing from its previous late April date as Firemint continues to polish the game. "The temptation to just release it is enormous," read the studio's blog, which also said it believes the racer has "the biggest development budget ever for an iPhone game."