Planet Centauri Devs Blame Steam for Disastrous Launch After 10 Years of Development

Planet Centauri, a 2D sandbox adventure billed as "Starbound meets Pokémon," was supposed to celebrate its full 1.0 release in December 2024. Instead, the long-awaited launch was marred by a rare Steam bug that prevented the game’s 138,000 wishlisters from receiving notifications, leaving the project nearly invisible on release day.

Planet Centauri

A Promising Journey Turned Sour

Developed by French duo Laurent Lechat and Boris, Planet Centauri spent more than a decade in development. The game combined exploration, base building, and monster capturing, earning over 103,000 sales during its Early Access period and securing a loyal community ahead of its official launch.

When the game finally released on Steam on December 12 for $14.99, expectations were modest but hopeful. After all, industry data suggests that Early Access games typically see a strong boost in sales when hitting 1.0. Instead, Planet Centauri sold just 581 copies in its first five days.

At first, the developers couldn’t understand what went wrong. “We never understood why until today,” Lechat wrote in a Reddit post earlier this week.

The post says they recently got an email from Valve, explaining that a platform bug, affecting fewer than 100 games since 2015, was the cause of the issue. For Planet Centauri, this meant that none of the 138,675 users who had wishlisted the game were notified about its release.

That missing visibility proved disastrous. Without the initial sales spike, Planet Centauri failed to appear on critical discovery tabs like “New and Trending” or “Best Sellers.” While the launch trailer pulled in nearly 500,000 views on YouTube, the audience that had already shown interest had no idea the game was out.

"I don't even have the strength to be angry," Lechat said. "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."

As a form of compensation, Valve offered the developers a spot in a Steam “Daily Deal,” a promotional slot designed to increase visibility and sales.

Still, Lechat expressed mixed feelings. Speaking to Polygon, he said: “It’s possible that the daily deal is, in fact, a great gift despite its limited 24-hour duration. We can’t tell, and we will see and hope for the best. But in any case, reality is what it is, and we won’t change it, so we might as well accept everything, take a breath, and move forward.”

Despite the setback, the duo has already started work on a new roguelike project built on Planet Centauri’s engine, with plans for release in the coming year. Financial obligations tied to that project could also allow them to revisit Planet Centauri with patches in the future.

In a follow-up post, they mentioned that the game participated in Steam Fest (Creature Collector Fest in May), which brought a much-needed boost. In just seven days, it sold 4,445 copies, generating $36,500, nine times more than its 1.0 launch week. "These numbers scream how much better the 1.0 would have been without this problem," Lechat added.

For small studios, Steam remains both the biggest opportunity and the biggest gamble. And Planet Centauri’s story shows that when those systems fail, developers are often left with little recourse.