The Thank You Post

[Schwarzstrom]

I believe the sales problem is due to no more than the sole fact that their name wasn't that big yet, and their advertising possibilities being limited. Tho I may be wrong. There are surely many people who didn't play the game because it is too scary, but these same people are the ones who actualy don't fancy games that are scarier than L4D2, which has a practicaly null scary factor.

This was my point, you see.
Not having a large demographic sucks. And making "too scary" of a game can easily drive customers off, like you said.
Enjoying being scared is sort of an "acquired taste"
Example: the scariest game of 2010 besides Amnesia?
Metro 2033. And that isn't even in the same category.
As for advertising, Steam did a pretty good job of it, especially for the Halloween sale.