Martin Frain, marketing director for developer DICE says Mirror's Edge is proof that an IP can come out of nowhere and capture imagination, "just by being different." He is targeting worldwide sales of 3m.
 
"We're being helped immensely, just by the look of the game," Frain says.  "You look at a screenshot of Mirror's Edge, and you know what it is."
 
Frain says that within most genres, all screenshots will look the same as other games in that same genre. "Some games do a good job with a unique look," he admits. "You see a screenshot of Bioshock, and you'd know it was Bioshock."
 
Mirror's Edge has that, too, Frain believes. "And we were quite frugal with our assets.  So we had a lot of people questioning, 'What is this game about?'"
 
All these swirling questions, Frain continues, generated a lot of interest. "If it's not interesting, then you can withhold whatever you want – no one's going to talk about it."
 
"But I think if we'd flooded the market straight away," he concludes, "People would have become immune." 
 
Frain also says that it was a risk to create a whole new genre – first-person action-adventure. But in the case of Mirror's Edge, he says, it's being hailed by critics as a bold thing, and is becoming accepted.
 
Sales are another measure of success. In this case, it's hard to project, because a new genre is always untested. "It's not like we can model it on shooter games – it's not a shooter game."
 
Frain gives the example of Call of Duty 4 selling over ten-million units. "That's a huge number. Great game, huge success."
 
When Frain put together his projections for Mirror's Edge, he considered some factors: it's a hot game, in a new genre – untested – but gathering a lot of attention.
 
"I would look for world-wide sales of over 3 million, on three platforms," Frain tells Edge, adding, "as a conservative number. I think it has the potential to do a lot more than that."