Forge Industry
BiteMe Games
A rich store page, a demo still up, Next Fest June 2023, 2,500 declared wishlists — and 32 reviews. The only public week-one numbers on the low-review side.
Next Fest + complete page + 2,500 wishlists ≠ Popular Upcoming
Forge Industry is the case where the checklist is ticked and velocity never arrives. Twelve screenshots, six languages, eighteen achievements, a trailer, a long description, a demo still downloadable, Next Fest June 2023. Chris Zukowski (HTMAG, 31 Oct 2023) published the team’s numbers: 2,500 wishlists, 104 sales and $1,824 gross in week one, 3.5% conversion. No Popular Upcoming, no New & Trending.
The Coming Soon page lived about a year. The demo shipped late — during the fest, then 1.0 shortly after. A Discovery Queue spike around 1,700 views, then the drop. A second pass near 6,000 views after ten reviews in August 2023. No launch sale: an internal miss, documented. The studio’s YouTube audience was mostly gamedev, not automation players.
On 17 August 2026: 32 reviews, 66% rating, Friday 21 July 2023. Eight updates observed, no DLC. The page did not vanish. The Steam signal did.
The lesson is not “the page is useless”. It is: page + fest + a thin, poorly converting wishlist stock does not trip the algorithm. The 6/6 page and 0/4 velocity diagnostic is this case.