Nivalis Nights Passes 1 Million Steam Wishlists Before September PC Release

Nivalis Nights, the upcoming cyberpunk life simulation from developer ION LANDS and publisher 505 Games, has passed one million wishlists on Steam ahead of its PC launch on September 29, 2026. The milestone places substantial attention on the return to Nivalis, the neon-drenched setting previously explored in Cloudpunk, but this time with an emphasis on settling down rather than simply delivering packages through the city's rain-filled skyline.

The game is planned to launch first on PC through Steam. An Epic Games Store release has also been confirmed, though it will arrive at a later, unspecified date. No console, handheld, or mobile versions were announced alongside the wishlist update.

For ION LANDS, the figure represents a sharp increase in audience interest compared with its earlier work. Creative Director Marko Dieckmann said the team did not expect to reach the seven-figure wishlist mark, noting that Cloudpunk had reached roughly 130,000 wishlists before release--already a major achievement for the studio at the time.

"Hitting one million wishlists is a milestone we never expected to see," Dieckmann said. "We launched Cloudpunk with about 130,000 wishlists, which already felt like a massive achievement for us back then. We are incredibly grateful for your patience and support, and we don't take a single one of you for granted. Thank you for believing in our team."

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A different way to return to Nivalis

Cloudpunk established Nivalis as a towering cyberpunk metropolis, full of aerial traffic, corporate power, dense neighborhoods and late-night deliveries. Nivalis Nights retains that broader setting but heads in a notably more domestic and open-ended direction. It is described as a cyberpunk life sim built around carving out a personal routine in the city.

Instead of centering the experience on a single profession or linear route through a story, players will be able to make a home and develop businesses in a coastal city defined by bright signage, waterfront areas and hidden side streets. The central fantasy is deliberately cozy even as the backdrop leans into futuristic urban life: run a small operation, meet people, improve a living space, gather supplies and decide what kind of place to build in Nivalis.

That premise is part of what makes the project distinct within the crowded life-sim field. Farming, decorating, relationship systems and small-business management are familiar genre pillars, but Nivalis gives them a cityscape of towering structures, boats, markets and cyberpunk nightlife rather than a rural village or pastoral island. The setting should allow everyday activities to sit alongside a much moodier, more technological aesthetic.

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From noodle stands to nightclubs

Business ownership is one of the clearest pillars announced for Nivalis Nights. Players can open, run and expand businesses, with examples including noodle stands and nightclubs. That range suggests the game is not limiting players to one narrowly defined career path, and it creates room for the progression to move from a modest neighborhood venture into something with a bigger nightlife presence.

The announcement does not yet detail exactly how deep the management systems will go, such as staffing, customer preferences, finances, reputation, or competition. Still, the promise of growing a business implies that day-to-day activity will feed into a larger sense of development over time. A player's business is positioned as one part of establishing a life in the city, rather than a disconnected minigame.

Ingredient sourcing will support that loop. Supplies can be acquired through city markets, by growing them, or by fishing. This combination gives the game several different rhythms: shopping among the city's merchants, tending to personally grown resources, and taking time away from busy streets to fish. It also fits the food-focused example of a noodle stand while leaving room for other kinds of enterprises to draw on the same resource systems.

It remains unclear how much players will need to specialize, whether businesses can be operated simultaneously, or how much freedom there will be to tailor each venue. Those details will be important in determining whether the business mechanics function primarily as a relaxed progression framework or a deeper simulation. For now, ION LANDS is presenting the idea as flexible city living with plenty of ways to spend an in-game day.

Walking streets and taking to the water

Exploration will happen both on foot and by boat. That is an especially fitting feature for the game's seaside metropolitan setting, and it gives Nivalis a different identity from the airborne traffic-focused perspective associated with Cloudpunk. Players will be able to move through waterfront districts and alleys, finding corners of the city beyond the immediate area around their home or business.

Boats also have the potential to make the city feel less like a set of enclosed zones and more like a connected coastal place. Fishing is already confirmed as an activity, so water travel may naturally overlap with gathering resources. Whether boats are purely a means of transport, part of a broader customization system, or involved in additional activities has not been announced.

On land, the emphasis on markets, streets and hidden paths suggests that discovering Nivalis will be a meaningful piece of its appeal. Cyberpunk games often focus on spectacle--the skyline, wealth gaps, crowded roads and enormous corporate structures. Here, those visual elements are being paired with smaller-scale interactions: visiting stores, seeking out ingredients, decorating a residence or checking in on a local venture. The aim appears to be a version of cyberpunk that feels inhabitable, not merely impressive from a distance.

Making a home in a high-tech city

Home decoration and customization are also confirmed. Players will be able to shape their personal space as they become more established in Nivalis. In life simulations, customization often provides the most visible record of progress, and it can be especially appealing in a stylized setting where players can match interiors to the wider city's neon-heavy atmosphere or build a contrasting retreat away from it.

Specific decoration categories, building options and customization limits have not been outlined. Even so, the system complements the wider structure well. A home offers a private counterpart to the public-facing work of operating a business, while farming and fishing add slower activities to offset the bustle of markets and nightlife. The result is a pitch built around choosing a daily pace rather than being pushed constantly through one urgent objective.

That open-ended quality is one of the features ION LANDS has highlighted. Players are meant to approach daily life in Nivalis on their own terms, deciding when to explore, when to gather ingredients, when to develop a commercial venture and when to simply invest time in their residence or social circle.

Friendships, romance and the people of Nivalis

A city only works as a life-sim destination if its residents give players reasons to return, and Nivalis Nights will include a varied cast of citizens. Character-focused encounters can develop into friendships and romance, adding a social layer to the business and exploration systems.

No individual characters or relationship mechanics were detailed in the wishlist announcement, so it is too early to know how branching these stories may be, whether romances will have gameplay effects, or how social progress ties into the wider economy and city exploration. However, the stated focus on character-driven meetings suggests the people of Nivalis will be more than background flavor for the city's shops and streets.

For fans of Cloudpunk, the prospect of revisiting the setting through local residents could be as important as the new lifestyle mechanics. The earlier game treated Nivalis as a dense, atmospheric place seen through movement and conversations during a working shift. Nivalis Nights appears designed to let players linger, form ties and build routines within that same world.

What one million wishlists means before launch

A Steam wishlist total is not a direct measure of sales, and it does not guarantee that every interested player will purchase at release. It is nevertheless a meaningful signal of visibility and intent ahead of launch, particularly for a game from an independent development team returning to a recognizable universe. Reaching one million indicates that Nivalis Nights has found an audience well beyond those who played ION LANDS' prior release.

The challenge now will be turning that interest into a successful debut and delivering a life sim that can satisfy players drawn in by both halves of its pitch: the appeal of a cozy, customizable routine and the distinctive allure of a rain-slick cyberpunk city. Those audiences overlap, but they may also arrive with different expectations around depth, freedom, storytelling and long-term progression.

Nivalis Nights launches on Steam for PC on September 29, 2026. The Epic Games Store edition is planned for a later date. With the million-wishlist milestone secured less than two weeks before the Steam release, all eyes will be on how players choose to make a life beneath Nivalis' neon lights.