Valve Dooms Indie Game After Wrecking Its Sales in 2024

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While Valve is getting a lot of positive attention for its new hardware, it’s also facing criticism for negatively impacting a game, a situation that happened previously in 2024.

Planet Centauri is a unique indie game where you find yourself stranded on a strange alien planet teeming with magic, monsters, and dinosaurs. To survive and build a life there, you’ll need to learn powerful magical abilities and tame the planet’s wild creatures.

Valve Accidentally Sabotaged Planet Centauri In 2024

Despite a large number of wishlists on Steam, the game Planet Centauri didn’t receive much attention or generate many sales when it officially launched in 2024. It turned out this was due to a technical issue with Steam’s notification system; Valve apologized to the developers because players who had wishlisted the game weren’t informed about its full release.

To fix their mistake, Valve gave the game Planet Centauri a prominent daily deal on Steam, featuring it on the front page of the store. This kind of visibility – reaching millions of potential players – is highly coveted by game developers. The developers chose November 12th as the day for this special offer.

Valve Wrecked Planet Centauri’s Sales Again In 2025

The team behind Planet Centauri offered a Daily Deal hoping to boost sales after leaving early access. However, the timing on November 12th was unfortunate. Valve simultaneously announced the Steam Machine, a new controller, and a VR headset, overshadowing the game’s promotion.

To highlight the announcement, Valve briefly redesigned the Steam store to prominently feature the Steam Machine. This pushed other games, like the daily deal for Planet Centauri, lower on the page. Users had to scroll through a lot of information about Valve’s new products just to find the deal.

Laurent Lechat, a developer on Planet Centauri, reported that the game sold 5,000 copies on its release day, but this was significantly less than expected. He jokingly suggested the game might be cursed.

Despite the issues, Valve accidentally brought a lot of attention to the game Planet Centauri. More people are checking it out now because of the mistake than would have if it had simply been featured as a daily deal. This unexpected attention could lead to increased sales for the game, turning it into an unlikely success story.

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2025-11-18 20:38