Indie devs call their game “cursed” after Valve accidentally ruins promotion twice

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The creators of the game Planet Centauri, a small French team called ‘Permadeath,’ believe their game is jinxed. A mistake by Valve caused problems with the game’s initial release, and even after Valve apologized and offered a promotional boost, that promotion didn’t go as planned.

Planet Centauri launched in full in December 2024 after almost a decade of development. Despite boasting 138,000 wishlists on Steam, the indie project only sold 581 units in its first week, as Polygon reported.

Despite selling over 100,000 copies during its early access period, the multiplayer crafting and monster-catching game significantly underperformed after its official launch. Developer Laurent Lechat expressed confusion that sales didn’t even reach 1,000 copies, a result the team found baffling.

Several months after the initial issue, Valve reached out to Permadeath to understand what had happened. They discovered a technical error on their side had stopped notifications from reaching players who had shown interest in the game. To try and fix things, Valve offered a new promotional opportunity in November, but unfortunately, that didn’t work out as planned either.

Valve apologizes to indie devs with new pledge

Following the issues with the wishlist feature, Planet Centauri didn’t take off as hoped. Low initial sales meant it couldn’t climb the charts for new games, and it quickly lost popularity. Because of this, the developers had to cut back on updates and support much earlier than planned.

Valve reached out to the French team to apologize and offered a special promotion to make things right. This promotion included featuring the game prominently on Steam’s Daily Deal, which is a banner all users see when they open Steam. Valve also said the game could be highlighted on Steam’s main page and within current sales promotions.

Lechat told Polygon that Steam’s offer felt insufficient, especially because it wasn’t clear how much of a difference it would actually make. He added, “We just have to wait and see what happens and hope for the best.”

Planet Centauri’s Steam spotlight goes awry

Like most Daily Deals, this promotion will run for 24 hours. According to Polygon, developers chose November 12, 2025, from a small selection of dates offered by Valve.

What seemed like a harmless decision at the time ended up causing problems, despite being beyond their control. On November 12th, Valve revealed its new hardware lineup, featuring the Steam Machine, Steam VR headset, and Steam Controller.

Following the announcements, Steam updated its online store to highlight the new hardware. Valve doesn’t often make big news, and it turned out to happen on the same day the game Planet Centauri was scheduled to be featured.

The game remained the main attraction as planned, but for those 24 hours, everyone was really watching Valve. As one person put it, “I have to say, over time, it really seems like Planet Centauri is just unlucky.”

Developer Laurent Lechat acknowledged the situation as unfortunate, but noted that it unexpectedly led to 5,000 extra sales. This boost will allow the team to continue operating for at least another year and complete their next game.

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2025-11-19 03:19