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9 months after its 1.0 launch flopped, an indie dev just learned that Steam never emailed the 130,000 people who wishlisted its game (old.reddit.com)
submitted 12 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/37741347

Post content:

More than 10 years ago we started creating Planet Centauri, a 2D sandbox with terraria as main inspiration.

We released the EA many years ago and this is our start just before the 1.0 release :

103 400 units solds

138 675 Wishlist

the sells seem incredible but it's not with so many years behind, when you work for 10 years and have to paid many people helping you with the ten of thousands of monsters frames animations and thousands of pixel art items, you don't have much left on your wallet at the end.

So we were eager for the release of 1.0 because with so many wishlists, the game's visibility would be good, we would appear in the new and trending categories due to sales, etc...

The 1.0 happen in december 2024... we sold... 581 units in 5 days.

The game didn't even appear on page 2; we were invisible; the release was a total flop. And we never understood why until today.

We just received this mail from Steam

Steam Launch Wishlist Email Issue

Hi there, We found a bug that impacted a very small number of game releases (less than 100 since 2015) where wishlist email notifications for the launch of a game were not sent. Unfortunately your game Planet Centauri was among those included. We intend for this feature to work for every game and we’re inviting you to a Daily Deal as a way to help make up for lost visibility from your launch day.

It's incredible to win the lottery like this: 100 games impacted in 10 years out of the 86,000 games on Steam. And to reward you, we're giving you 24-hour visibility (which is nothing special; there are 6 slots available for this visibility every day of the year for various Steam invitations).

I don't even have the strength to be angry. We've been so frustrated, disgusted, and in total confusion . Now we know, we understand better, it's unfair, and we can't change anything. We've started a second project because it's financially impossible to continue patching our game, and we're moving forward, because it's the only thing to do.

This article was my way of expressing my anger, I guess, but also to see all the problems that a platform holding 99% of the PC gaming market can cause when the cogs don't work as they should.

Have a nice day everyone, may luck be better to you

Comments

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago

Seems like an open and shut case for a lawsuit

[-] [email protected] 32 points 4 hours ago

And to reward you, we’re giving you 24-hour visibility

(which is nothing special; there are 6 slots available for this visibility every day of the year for various Steam invitations).

He has no clue what he's talking about Steam in 2021 had 69 MILLION daily active users. WTF do you think is a bigger number 130.000 wishlists or getting even 1% of 69 million people to look at something in the reel?

People don't understand the size of steam or the value of that space (that one of six slots) sometimes. It's wild.

And also, THEY noticed, THEY informed him, THEY apologized, and THEY offered some form of compensation, which they legally don't have to.

I am soooooooooooooooo tired of indie devs blaming everything from the constellation of the stars to the quality of the donuts on a different continent for their game not doing well, except that maybe the game isn't that good, and also those 100.000 already sold units is the actual size of the market for that game.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 hours ago

And the numbers are ridiculous - 100 out of 87000 is ~0.1% - I'm sad that this dev's project got kneecapped on release, but Steam is making things right here. An actual asshole move would be to have said nothing and done none of the things they're doing now to make up for the loss. The 24 hour visibility boost should have been a bit longer though. Somewhere between 3 and 7 days sounds better.

Either way I hope the dev team recoups their losses and more with the millions of eyes that their game gets now.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 52 minutes ago

Yeah but if other games where affected as well then they also have to give time to those ASAP, plus they also have their regular commitments for those Daily slots and they can’t delay too many of those without kneecapping another dev who wasn’t even yet involved.

Maybe the idea is that 24 hours is enough to build the momentum and if it does well then it’ll stand on its own within the ecosystem (move up sales-based listings, reviews, etc) and the remaining promotion will be attained organically?

[-] [email protected] -3 points 1 hour ago

Insufferable much? you clearly lack the skill of discernment, painting exceptions with the same brush makes you no better than some neckbeard armchair quarterback. OP doesnt follow your clearly axe to grind shitty opinion.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 56 minutes ago

Username checks out.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 57 minutes ago

found the indie dev

[-] [email protected] 19 points 4 hours ago

I check my email for info on wish list games approximately never.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 22 minutes ago

I find it useful. They send an email when a game on my wishlist goes on sale. When it's a steep discount, I'll take another look at the game.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

I have games on my wishlist from 2015. Almost a decade at this point.

My wishlist exists more to let Internet friends know what to get me when they feel like it.

[-] [email protected] 49 points 6 hours ago

Thing about wishlist is, I treat it more as a "Games I found vaguely interesting at first glance" rather than a "Games I want to play" list. I assume I'm not alone in this matter. Of 214 games on my wishlist, there's like 3 I'd play right now if they were gifted to me. 2 that I'd buy. So, assuming 1% of people who wishlisted a game will buy it on launch, that would have been 1368 sales (rounding up). Assuming the game cost 20$ at launch (it currently costs ~14$), that would be 27360$ from launch day sales. Nice payday, but not if you have to work 10 years to get it (also taxes and steam's cut, so that number would actually be much lower)

Thing is, just because you worked hard on something doesn't guarantee that it will be good and/or popular.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 hours ago

I don't have a source in hand but I thought I read somewhere that devs calculate 10% of wishlist so as actual buyers since a lot of people do it your way.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

Which would mean they missed out on 12400 sales. Not negligible for a game that sold 100k total.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 hours ago

Do that many people rely on emails for that?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago

I do, constantly.

[-] [email protected] -3 points 2 hours ago

No, most people have email notifications disabled (like me). That 24h visibility boost will do way more than wishlist mails ever could!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

how tf would you know this? what data could you possibly have access to that no one else does

[-] [email protected] 33 points 6 hours ago

I know that is a terrible blow and it sucks. However in this corrupted age you have to admire that valve acknowledged its error where any of the main players would have just kept it quite.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Valve continues being the goat. The benefits of being a private corp with a service-minded CEO.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 57 minutes ago* (last edited 56 minutes ago)

Companies are never your friends.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago

Once gabe goes, it's all over.

Try not to become too dependent on the corporation.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

I dunno about that, I've heard Gabe already appointed a successor himself. And I doubt he would pick one that would undo his good work.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 hours ago

This is going to sound weird but I never actually get Steam emails, outside of receipts. Maybe I disabled them years ago. And I wishlist/follow hundreds of games.

Uncertain if I'm a unique edge case who hates email clutter or not.

[-] [email protected] 95 points 11 hours ago

Said this on /c/gaming as well but

I have no doubt that this bug played a part in their sales... However... The game was in early access for a decade before it actually released in 1.0. This was the 1.0 change log:

Changelog 1.0.0 - 12 december 2024

Adds:

  • Guidance system: uses the completion tree to display objectives and help the player to progress. The guidance system can be disabled in Game options.
  • Option to change the direction only when moving with the keyboard (player is not facing automatically the mouse)

Changes:

  • Quests and dialogs with the crystal have been removed and replaced by the guidance system
  • Worm transformation is always visible

Various bugs fixed

So to be honest, I'm not entirely sure that that launch was much of a launch to begin with... While the bug definitely had a part to play, I'm not sure this would have sold anything in the first place. It's a terraria clone that was dragged through early access for a decade before launching in a way that doesn't actually feel like a launch.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago

Many devs will incrementally update the early-access versions to be close to 1.0 before release. 1.0 doesn't have to be a massive update, it just signifies the point when the devs think the game is complete.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago

This was not one of those situations though. Every reddit thread talking about this game has a ton of people who were playing at the time or after launch and all saying that it's just a poorly done game.

I got it when it came out and tbh… it’s just not very good. I think a big reason games in the indie world become well sold is because of positive word of mouth (Balatro, slay the spire, vampire survivors etc) and this one was just… not good. I wouldnt recommend it personally. Source

That whole thread is filled with people talking about the state of the game before launch of 1.0 as well as the launch. Also some very good points about the weakness of their financial choices if they ended up broke at the launch of 1.0.

[-] [email protected] 37 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

No, you're wrong. Every wishlist is a guaranteed sale on launch day. When people see that number tick from 0.5937.5 to 1.0, they can't help themselves. It doesn't matter if they wishlisted it 10 years ago and forgot the game exists. The trick is, they have to see it on launch day in an automated email. Otherwise the sale is lost for good. Literally every true gamer knows this.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 7 hours ago

While I agree that the changes for 1.0 don't look like enough to make it a full release, a lot of gamers categorically refuse to buy a game in early access and wait for the 1.0 release for the "full experience". Nobody can say how many sales would have been generated.

Valve offers somewhat high visibility for a very short time as compensation. That doesn't cost them anything and is very disappointing. Refund of some of the paid fees, or a discount for the players out of Valve's pocket doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

Pressing X to doubt on this one

[-] [email protected] 10 points 11 hours ago

Link to their steam? I'll buy it

[-] [email protected] 19 points 10 hours ago

Why was there no mention from Steam that they have belatedly sent out the emails? Were the people who wishlisted the game still not notified? This is no way to fix a issue.

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
273 points (98.2% liked)

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