Steam Bug Botched This Indie Game’s Launch, Now It’s Getting A Second Chance

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French game developers Laurent Lechat and Boris Marmontel spent nearly ten years developing Planet Centauri, releasing it as an early access game on Steam. Unfortunately, the full game launch last year wasn’t successful, and Valve is taking responsibility for not alerting the over 100,000 players who had shown interest in the game by adding it to their Steam wishlists.

Lechat recently shared on Reddit (as reported by Polygon) that Valve sent an email explaining why the game Planet Centauri didn’t gain much popularity after its launch.

Valve discovered an issue that prevented a limited number of games (fewer than 100 since 2015) from sending out wishlist notifications when they launched. Unfortunately, your game, Planet Centauri, was affected. Valve is committed to ensuring all games benefit from this feature and is offering you a Daily Deal to help increase visibility after the launch day notification error.

Lechat shared that the poor reception to Planet Centauri really discouraged both him and Marmontel. He was initially hesitant about Valve’s offer, but other Reddit users encouraged them to take advantage of the potential exposure from a Daily Deal on Steam’s front page.

Planet Centauri has seen a slight increase in players – up to 105 – since its story gained attention. While this isn’t a massive jump, those who’ve tried the game have generally liked it. However, some Steam reviews point out that the game still has issues and feels unfinished, like a work in progress.

Lechat and Marmontel are developing a new roguelike game using the same technology as Planet Centauri. They’ve explained that they need to complete this new game first before they can resume updating Planet Centauri.

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2025-09-22 15:39