Planet Centauri Devs Say Game is ‘Cursed’ After New Steam Bug
▼ Summary
– Planet Centauri’s 1.0 release suffered from a Steam bug that prevented wishlist announcement emails, causing poor initial traction.
– Valve offered the developer a Daily Deal spotlight as compensation, which Permadeath accepted for November 12.
– The Daily Deal coincided with Valve’s major Steam hardware reveal, which overshadowed Planet Centauri’s promotion.
– Despite the bad timing, the Daily Deal sold over 5,000 copies, providing enough revenue for the studio to survive and develop a second game.
– The developer plans to skip early access for their next game and release a demo quickly, while still feeling Planet Centauri is “cursed.”
The development journey of Planet Centauri has been anything but smooth for indie studio Permadeath. After more than ten years in development and accumulating an impressive 130,000 wishlists on Steam, the game’s official 1.0 launch earlier this year was severely hampered by a platform bug. This technical glitch prevented Steam from sending release notification emails to the vast number of fans who had wishlisted the title, drastically cutting into its crucial day-one visibility.
Valve acknowledged the unfortunate error and offered the developers a compensatory opportunity: a featured spot in Steam’s Daily Deals. This was intended as a goodwill gesture to help recover some of the lost exposure. Permadeath, having moved on to other projects out of necessity, decided to accept the offer despite some hesitation. They scheduled their Daily Deal for November 12, a date provided by Valve.
As fate would have it, November 12 turned out to be a monumental day for Valve, but not for Planet Centauri. Valve chose that exact day to unveil its new Steam hardware lineup, including the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller. This major announcement completely dominated gaming headlines and community discussions for days, overshadowing all other news and store promotions. The spotlight that was meant to help Planet Centauri was effectively drowned out by the hardware reveal.
Laurent Lechat from Permadeath explained to Polygon that the November 12 date was selected more or less at random. He emphasized that the team understands Valve would not have disclosed its significant hardware plans to a small indie developer. “It’s just bad luck and we must accept it,” Lechat stated, acknowledging the sheer misfortune of the timing. This second stroke of bad luck feels particularly cruel, coming on the heels of the initial launch email failure.
While the Daily Deal did not perform as well as the team had hoped, it was not a total loss. The promotion still resulted in the sale of more than 5,000 copies of the game in a single day. Although this figure fell short of expectations and was even less than the sales generated after the initial launch problem went viral, it provided a vital financial lifeline. Lechat confirmed that the revenue is “enough for us to survive for at least a year and allow us to finish our second game.”
The studio is now focusing on its next project, which it plans to release directly as a full version, bypassing the early access model entirely. A demo for this unannounced title is expected to be available as soon as possible. Permadeath also hopes to continue supporting Planet Centauri with new updates, despite Lechat’s personal feeling that the game seems to be “cursed” after its repeated run-ins with misfortune.
For players interested in experiencing this adventure, Planet Centauri is currently available on Steam at a 50% discount, bringing the price down to $7.49.
(Source: PC Gamer)
