Sektori recoups developer salary

Kimmo Lahtinen, the solo Finnish developer behind the twin-stick shooter *Sektori*, said the game’s Switch 2 release has generated enough revenue for him to “pretty much recoup a living salary” after years of unpaid development work. Nintendo Life reported the update on May 19, citing Lahtinen’s public comments after the game’s launch on Nintendo’s new console. (nintendolife.com) Eurogamer also reported the turnaround earlier this week, saying the Switch 2 version changed the financial picture for a game whose creator had struggled to pay himself a living wage. (resetera.com) Lahtinen’s comments put a number on the change. In the post cited by Nintendo Life and other outlets, he said total sales were at about 30,000 and thanked players for the Switch 2 reception. (allkeyshop.com) The disclosure offered a rare public glimpse into how a console port can alter the economics of a small independent game. ### How much did the Switch 2 launch change for Sektori? Lahtinen said the Switch 2 launch had “pretty much recouped a living salary” for him, a shift from the position he described after the original release. Eurogamer reported that the game’s release on Nintendo’s new hardware last week was the event that finally allowed him to pay himself a living wage. (nintendolife.com) A week after *Sektori* first launched in November 2025, Lahtinen had described a much tighter situation. Hanafuda Report said he posted at the time that the game was nearing recoupment on development costs and overheads, but still represented “zero salary for 4.5 years.” (resetera.com) ### What was the game’s financial situation before Nintendo’s new console? Hanafuda Report said Lahtinen began work on *Sektori* in April 2021 and spent four and a half years developing it into the version now on sale. In that interview, he said he had fully expected to be “out of the indie business” after the original launch, and that the game’s reception kept him going. (resetera.com) Nintendo Life described the Switch 2 port as a major success for the developer, but neither Nintendo Life nor Eurogamer published platform-by-platform sales figures beyond the total sales number Lahtinen shared. Nintendo does not generally allow developers to publicly disclose detailed sales data from its storefront, according to GoNintendo’s account of the same comments. (hanafuda.report) ### Who is Kimmo Lahtinen? Nintendo Insider identified Lahtinen as a Finnish solo developer who previously spent 13 years at Housemarque, the studio known for games including *Resogun* and *Dead Nation*. He told the site that he makes games by himself, with his brother usually handling music. (hanafuda.report) Hanafuda Report said Lahtinen had originally hoped to bring *Sektori* to the first Switch, but performance constraints made that difficult. The Switch 2 version therefore became the Nintendo release that finally reached the platform audience he had initially targeted. ### When did Sektori arrive on Switch 2? (nintendolife.com) *Sektori* arrived on Switch 2 on May 14, 2026, according to Hanafuda Report and other coverage around the port’s release. The game had first debuted in November 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox platforms before reaching Nintendo’s new system about six months later. Nintendo Life’s review, published the same week as the port, called *Sektori* one of its favorite Switch 2 releases of 2026 so far. (nintendo-insider.com) For Lahtinen, the next concrete milestone is whether the game’s post-launch sales continue beyond the first week of Switch 2 availability, after he said the initial launch had already lifted total sales to about 30,000. (nintendolife.com) (hanafuda.report)