Originally posted by SaberToothDeathMouse:

I've never understood why people just assume that the devs have made "so much money". Are you their accountant? Do you know what their expenses have been in developing this game **from scratch**?

There is no reason to pretend they did not make a lot of money. They openly said they sold more than 10 million copies, and Valheim was one of the most successful indie releases of all time. Something would be horribly wrong if it turned out they did not get a lot of money. For the sake of the sustainability of the industry as a whole its absolutely great news that you can still make it big if your product is good.

That said, only the studio owners are millionaires now. Most of the employees are regular hired workers. Also the armchair psychologists get the incentives all wrong. If you work hard on something and it proves highly successful, you don't stop doing it. Instead you keep doing it obsessively. Many gamedevs have admitted working themselves to burnout after a successful game release. Its a good thing that Iron Gate seem to have level heads still and they allow themselves to take some time off during the summer etc.

People should recognize a good thing when they see one. The future of Valheim looks about as good as it possibly can. The studio is hiring more people at a reasonable pace, they have secure funding for the project, and they have a capable team behind it with a vision on what they want the game to be. And they have a fanbase which still cares about the game. Personally I can't imagine how things could be any better.