game visibility Archives

AppWizard

September 21, 2025

9 months after its 1.0 launch flopped, an indie dev just learned that Steam never emailed the 130,000 people who wishlisted its game

Planet Centauri, a 2D sandbox game developed by Permadeath, launched after a decade in early access but sold only 581 units in its first five days. Despite over 100,000 sales and being on 130,000 wishlists, the game failed to gain visibility on Steam, not appearing on its New & Trending listings. The developer, Laurent Lechat, expressed frustration over the lack of reach, noting that the game's trailer had nearly 500,000 views on YouTube. Valve offered to feature Planet Centauri as a Daily Deal to improve visibility. The team has decided to pivot to developing a new roguelike game using the same engine, acknowledging that continuing to patch the original game is no longer feasible.

AppWizard

June 23, 2025

Microsoft adds Steam games to its Xbox PC app on Windows

Xbox Insiders will soon have access to a new aggregated gaming library within the Xbox PC app on Windows, allowing them to view Steam and Battle.net games alongside Xbox titles. This feature aims to centralize PC gaming and streamline the experience by automatically adding games from supported storefronts to the user's library. Future updates are expected to include support for additional PC storefronts. Users can join the Xbox Insider program by downloading the Xbox Insider Hub and enrolling in the PC gaming preview, with options to manage game visibility in the app's settings.

AppWizard

February 27, 2025

Valve expands Steam’s Daily Deals program from 4 games to 6, also explains what Steam’s Daily Deals program is

Valve has expanded Steam's Daily Deals program from four to six featured games each day to enhance visibility and selection for users. In 2024, the program showcased 2,843 games from 1,160 developers across 68 countries, with each game typically receiving over 10 million impressions during its promotion. Daily Deals can lead to significant revenue boosts, with earnings ranging from ,000 to ,000,000, and 87% of featured games in 2024 had never been highlighted before. Eligibility for the promotion is based on customer interest, revenue momentum, and discounts, with curated promotions limited to once a year per game. Additionally, Valve introduced a "promotion recap" feature for developers to analyze their game's performance during the promotion.