Seven years of work, dozens of trailers at the PC Gaming Show, and hundreds of positive reviews on the demo – and none of it saved Generation Exile. Sonderlust Studios founder Nels Anderson revealed in posts on Bluesky and Reddit that his solarpunk city-builder failed to find an audience in early access.
"I spent 7 years creating Generation Exile, a city-building game with a solarpunk aesthetic. Trailers at PC Gaming Show 2024 and 2025, in the top 70 for demos at Next Fest. Launched in Early Access with 35,000 wishlists. Sold less than 300 copies," Anderson wrote.
According to him, the project converted almost 0% of wishlists into sales. He sees the problems in distrust of Early Access and an incomprehensible trailer.
Of course, if you are a very well-known entity (Larian + BG3, Hades II, etc.) or create something recognizable, such as "a popular concept, but slightly different", then, of course, everything will be fine. But if you don't start with that, then it's complicated.
Generation Exile will get a new trailer. Anderson admits that success is not guaranteed, but the quality of the game is not below average compared to other Early Access projects.
The author's disappointment underscores the harsh reality of indie development: wishlisting does not always guarantee sales.
