Why are there low number of games?

I bought planetary annihilation and when I go to play multiplayer, only few games show up. Is the game dead?

No. It isn't StarCraft 2.

Around 80% of games are vs AI.

Around 80% of multiplayer games are in progress and are not shown.

Around 30% of lobbies are full and waiting for a host to start or are otherwise unviewable and unjoinable.

Assuming 1000 players total at any given time, that means that you will only have ~28 players in viewable lobbies at any given time.

This game isn't dieing. It's growing.

That's nice to know

Indeed you are right?

The time of day is a big factor too if you dont live in the US

A great many peope play private lobbies, and single player ai games. Back when the numbers were up in the server browser, I recall having around 500-1000 players being active any time I had a look, depending on the time of day in the UK.

Also, why be so negative?

Some people (me included) are not playing Multiplayer because of an UI lag in the stable build. Guess the numbers will be higher again after the next patch.

All 28 people are listlessly gawping at the blank screen, awaiting that somebody who will tap the big "CREATE GAME" button for them.
I've been looking through the Steam forums and these complaints occur more frequently there (usually with the all the linguistic dexterity of a seal signing a signature).
The reason DotA and Starcraft II don't get these complaints is they hide how few active lobbies there are and give people a nice simple 'Find Game' button. No pressure to create a game if there isn't one, even if it's just as easy.

I almost always host 10 player matches. They fill within as many minutes.

Quite true. Many are used to completely automatic matchmaking these days like in titanfall.

Plus let's not forget that many might be holding out for the full release. And there are over 22.000 kickstarter backers who went for the full game with no alpha or beta access.

Let's not forget the retail partnership with Nordic games. Once this game is released it'll be sold physically at your local retail outlets. That alone will boost the games population drastically.

We are still way in the Early Days of PA.

yes, the game suffers only from psycosomatic issues. The game is new early prerelease, the full game is accessible to all supporters because uber released it before launch, but most games are ai, some games are with clan so fills, few are starcraft 1v1, id guess 50 people are staring at a blank screen refusing to click create game.

this game rewards greatly those who take initiative.

Oh, didn't know it was released for them as well. My bad.

Can't relate, close to 50 people in lobby right now


Going by the displayname PA Stats sees currently roughly 2000 unique players each week. PA Stats however only has roughly 100-200 unique users that report players each day, so there are even more games that are simply not recorded by me, but even only from this restricted view PA sure isn't dead at all.
Overall PA Stats has seen 22000+ different players in 2014.

Plus don't forget that in the Kickstarter, several thousand people pledged to just get the game on release, so expect a big boost after 1.0

All Kickstarter backers currently have access to the game. I believe when Uber announced the "when it's done" release date is when they all go in. Though I still imagine lots are waiting for 1.0 release to really start playing.

yep. The important thing is it is a niche game of dedication to some, yet aims to intrigue casuals back into the wonderful world of rts. But mainly, it rewards those who take initiative. Creating games. Designing systems. Modding for better gameplay. Helping with game design and fixes. Creating teams. Participating in community.

A lot of the players are also playing the PTE build right now, further splitting the playerbase.

I sure hope player populations increase by a lot on launch. You have to remember that we won't get the same increase as a non-early access game because people have seen PA around on the steam store and already decided not to get it.

Yes, but a lot don't get it because it's incomplete.

Problems I see with this whole game is how Uber is going about things...
Gamma release is a release candidate in software development terms, but as a software developer myself i don't see this as "Feature Complete" and ready to roll out the door.
Uber used Gamma to entice more people to buy the game as well as lowering the price to buy it.

This game is still Beta, features are still being added and the ones that exist are not complete, balanced or well tested on all platforms.

1. Pre-Alpha
   The software is still under active development and not feature complete or ready for consumption by anyone other than software developers. There may be milestones during the pre-alpha which deliver specific sets of functionality, and nightly builds for other developers or users who are comfortable living on the absolute bleeding edge.
   
   
   
   
2. Alpha
   The software is complete enough for internal testing. This is typically done by people other than the software engineers who wrote it, but still within the same organization or community that developed the software.
   
   
   
   
3. Beta
   The software is complete enough for external testing -- that is, by groups outside the organization or community that developed the software. Beta software is usually feature complete, but may have known limitations or bugs. Betas are either closed (private) and limited to a specific set of users, or they can be open to the general public.
   
   
   
   
4. Release Candidate (aka gamma or delta)
   The software is almost ready for final release. No feature development or enhancement of the software is undertaken; tightly scoped bug fixes are the only code you're allowed to write in this phase, and even then only for the most heinous and debilitating of bugs. One of the most experienced software developers I ever worked with characterized the release candidate development phase thusly: "does this bug kill small children?"
   
   
   
   
5. Gold
   The software is finished -- and by finished, we mean there are no show-stopping, little-children-killing bugs in it. That we know of. There are probably numerous lower-prority bugs triaged into the next point release or service pack, as well.