The games industry is a harsh mistress. With the number of games coming out, being a great game is not enough to make a "hit", even with modest goal of 700 sales.

I feel like he put a lot of faith on his effort instead of looking at the results. 187 e-mails and 10K tweet impressions does not translate into games sold. How many of those e-mails got a positive response? How many previews on Youtube, Twitch, other channels? From what I have read steam wishlists have a 1:6 ratio to sales on good days, but again it's all empty promises.