You do understand the nature of being 2nd party right.  Meaning the publisher funds the project.  Also why would 1.4 million equal piece of shit.  When has sales ever dictated the quality of a game.  Basically you have absolutely no knowledge of Remedy studio health but you are quick to come to a conclusion.  You do not also have a clue as to if they were in trouble financially before Steam since there has been no statements to that effect.  If MS funded the majority of their project and they stayed within budget, then as a studio they were never in any trouble.  Sales wise they games did not sell like COD but then again they may not needed to sell in that amount.

Because it debuted at only 110K in the US for its first, of which it launched the 5th, so was pretty much there all month.  The following month it dropped to under 80K because it wasn't in the Top 10 anymore.  Think it fared the same elsewhere.  Unless MS thought it was only going to do 500K lifetime, which is impossible because of all the money and promotion that went into the game, they are lying.