Valve has banned several curatorial groups of Steam following allegations of key resale and false negative reviews about a new indie game. The events started when the fighting game point and click Brok the InvestiGator was struck by negative reviews from Steam curators after its developer used prologue keys in an attempt to determine if any of those who asked for access to the game were simply trying to resell their keys.
In the wake of its release last week, the indie title had amassed many positive user reviews, but developer Cowcat noted that several Steam curator reviews had gone from a positive “Recommended” to “Not Recommended” rating. After looking into the matter, Cowcat concluded that the resulting change was likely due to the owners of the free keys.
In a Twitter thread, Cowcat explains that he didn’t want to give the game away for free to retailers posing as reviewers, but they wanted to make sure they didn’t bother legitimate critics. Therefore, she sent a demo version of the game to all users who requested one, believing that the actual curators would respond to report the error. As Cowcat explains, it’s not possible to fully confirm the contents of a Steam key without activating it, which would likely surprise a retailer if they simply passed it on to someone else.
Here are all the curator reviews for the game and you can notice there’s a good chunk of “suspicious” negative reviews. https://t.co/E2AkLggKWe
(1/16) pic.twitter.com/Bu0R1qymvB
– BROK 🐊 OUT NOW! (@COWCATGames) August 28, 2022
Cowcat assumes that after attempting to resell the demo keys, the illegitimate curators were hit with negative feedback from third-party customers who expected they had purchased a full game. In response, they suggest that the alleged retailers changed their reviews as a form of revenge, but in doing so they highlighted another problem.
Now, it appears Valve has taken action following the developer reports; all groups that targeted the game with fake reviews have been removed. Other groups that were owned by the same curator but did not leave a review also appear to have been banned. Nine curator groups were reportedly used to post negative reviews, with one owner managing 11 other groups. Therefore, a total of 20 bans were issued.
Source: Eurogamer
#Valve #bans #scammers #disguised #curators #Steam #indie #studio