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[llien]

Insel Games, a Maltese developer of online multiplayer titles, has been banned from Steam and had all its titles removed from Valve's storefront after evidence surfaced that it was encouraging employees to manipulate user review scores on the service. Yesterday, redditor nuttinbutruth posted a purported leaked email from Insel Games' CEO encouraging employees to buy reimbursed copies of the game in order to leave a Steam review. "Of course I cannot force you to write a review (let alone tell you what to write) -- but I should not have to," the email reads. "Neglecting the importance of reviews will ultimately cost jobs. If [Wild Busters] fails, Insel fails... and then we will all have no jobs next year."

In a message later in the day, Valve said it had investigated the claims in the Reddit post and "identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the publisher of this game. The publisher appears to have used multiple Steam accounts to post positive reviews for their own games. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously." While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them.

Slashdot

 

[Shifty]

Neglecting the importance of reviews will ultimately cost jobs. If [Wild Busters] fails, Insel fails... and then we will all have no jobs next year.

There's a certain schadenfreude about the CEO breaking Steam T&Cs and getting comeuppance for it, but this sucks for everyone who's now out of a job due to the poor decision making of one person with too much power.

That said, if the company's success was riding on an isometric twin-stick shooter then they were likely on the way out regardless. Hopefully the now ex-employees were savvy enough to see that and make plans ahead of time...

 

[VertigoOA]

Not much different than the actual game review business... paid shills

 

[Spukc]

what a
sad thing to do steam as big corps don't find a way to bullshit the system

 

[Leocarian]

Wow. This is quite hilarious and embarrassing lol. Hit a new low guess.

 

[Hoya Destroyer]

Thats a high price to pay. I feel bad for the other employees at that company, who will lose money as a result of this. Still, I understand that Steam didnt want to set a precedent by letting this slide.

 

[FireEmoji]

I think that's a little harsh; I don't mind Steam as a near monopoly because they tend to let everyone onto the store and any time they wield the power to stop a game/dev from selling on Steam it gives me pause.

Seems like maybe resetting their games to zero reviews or something would suffice.

They've also put themselves in a hard spot if it is found out that any big games/developers do the same.

 

[AnimalFather]

third world developers

 

[sublimit]

Even the most naive gamers know that this happens all the time especially by people getting paid from big corporations to do exactly that. Fake reviews and astroturfing is just how marketing works today. It's sad to see "the righteous hand of justice" ban a small developer yet big publishers continue getting away with it.

Congrats Valve you really showed them.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Ah, of all the things we decry Valve and Steam, fake game reviews was certainly a top priority.

/s

 

[DryvBy]

Good job on Valve and their ethics. I can't imagine too many companies banning this type of behavior. Reminds me of that controversy with TellTale Games and Jurassic Park.

 

[Grimmrobe]

Valve of course need to enforce their policies, but it seems heavy-handed to ban this company altogether from using Steam. They made an unethical decision and should be punished for it, sure, but Valve has now essentially killed this small company dead with a single swipe. No more games from them, ever. All those people lost their jobs. The CEOs lost everything they have worked on.

Maybe they felt they had to make an example of them, but there were plenty of other, less extreme ways that they could have done this.

 

[Kadayi]

Valve of course need to enforce their policies, but it seems heavy-handed to ban this company altogether from using Steam. They made an unethical decision and should be punished for it, sure, but Valve has now essentially killed this small company dead with a single swipe. No more games from them, ever. All those people lost their jobs. The CEOs lost everything they have worked on.

Maybe they felt they had to make an example of them, but there were plenty of other, less extreme ways that they could have done this.

Agreed. This seems like a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I can't imagine there's a lot of game development gigs on Malta tbh.

 

[cireza]

Great, the company has been banned and everything is fine again. Because it was the only company to do this, wasn't it ?

 

[Blam]

Great, the company has been banned and everything is fine again. Because it was the only company to do this, wasn't it ?

Only one found so far I'd assume. Valve probably did this probably did this as a show of force to scare others away from doing this.

 

[sublimit]

Only one found so far I'd assume. Valve probably did this probably did this as a show of force to scare others away from doing this.

Do you think that other bigger publishers don't do this as well?Or do you think that this will make them hesitate to do it again? They are just rich enough to be able to cover their tracks more eficiently than small time developers like this one.
Also even if a publisher like EA was caught doing it do you think that Valve would have the balls to ban them? lol

Btw i'm not saying that practises like this shouldn't be punished but i find it very hypocritical to pretend that now that they ruined a small time publisher everything will be fair and pure again.

 

[dsier]

On the one hand I agree with Valve taking action in this case. But on the other hand, I don't believe that they are the only ones who have done this.
In my opinion, this feels a bit like Valve trying to prove the increasing amount of people accusing Valve of being too passive on issues like this wrong. But by punishing such a small developer, they are also not damaging any relationship with a big studio that generates them large amounts of money.

So while I agree with punishing behavior like this, I can't shake the feeling that this was a "safe" move by Valve rather than truly being strict with enforcing their rules.

 

[Blam]

Do you think that other bigger publishers don't do this as well?Or do you think that this will make them hesitate to do it again? They are just rich enough to be able to cover their tracks more eficiently than small time developers like this one.
Also even if a publisher like EA was caught doing it do you think that Valve would have the balls to ban them? lol

Btw i'm not saying that practises like this shouldn't be punished but i find it very hypocritical to pretend that now that they ruined a small time publisher everything will be fair and pure again.

Oh I doubt that they aren't doing so. It's just I'm pretty sure Valve will get lampooned if they now don't do the same for other companies.

 

[EBE]

I keep reading this thread title as "Valve bans Vin Diesel"

 

[Freshmaker]

Even the most naive gamers know that this happens all the time especially by people getting paid from big corporations to do exactly that. Fake reviews and astroturfing is just how marketing works today. It's sad to see "the righteous hand of justice" ban a small developer yet big publishers continue getting away with it.

Astroturfing needs to die. It's always obvious, and it's usually employed to prop up a garbage product.