The dark and doomed city of Dunwall's plague-ridden streets was apparently not enough to keep gamers from immigrating in large numbers. Talking with Destructoid, Bethesda PR chief Pete Hines passed along the news that Dishonored is selling above expectations, though declined to provide any numbers. Obviously gamers love stabbing dudes, or having the option of maybe not stabbing those dudes, so it should make everyone happy when Bethesda says, "We clearly have a new franchise."

Here's Mr. Hines' full statement, discussing in part how well Dishonored has done over Black Friday weekend and topped the charts on Steam:

"I can tell you that Dishonored is far exceeding our sales expectations, which is especially cool considering it’s new IP facing a host of well-established franchises this quarter. We did terrific numbers again this past weekend, both in stores and on Steam, where Dishonored was listed as the #1 selling title over the holiday weekend. And Dishonored has really sold well overseas. 

So, we’re very pleased and appreciate all the fans that have supported Dishonored and Arkane. We clearly have a new franchise."

For some perspective, early sales numbers for Dishonored reported over 450,000 units sold during the month of October, Dishonored being released on October 9. While the stealth action game may not have sold more than titans like NBA 2K13, Resident Evil 6 or Pokemon, for a new IP the sales numbers are very impressive. It's Mr. Hines' comment that Dishonored topped the Black Friday Steam sales that really makes my jaw drop, as the holiday events are always extremely profitable.

Our own Dishonored review from Lydia was very complimentary, she even scored it on par with (gasp) Halo 4. I'd be far from surprised to hear Dishonored's name pop up quickly and often during our Game of the Year award discussions. Here's looking forward to Arkane's Dishonored 2, though some DLC will have to do in the mean time.