Look at Battletech. It's an established IP, sure, but very niche compared to Warhammer, and those sales estimates were blown out of the water. I think it's more to do with the fact that this game is so much more different in genre and tone than other HBS titles like BT and Shadowrun. They had few of their core fans who were looking for a game like Lamplighters and therefore were basically relying on new fans.

Yeah. It came out right in the middle of multiple massive games. It also has no quicksave/quickload system which for this kind of game is almost a must. Folks can ignore a system for the challenge, but without it there entirely it puts me off playing. Call it save scummy playing, but it's how the genre has always worked.