"Spamming cloned games or manipulating our shop tools isn’t something nosotros volition tolerate," says Valve.
173 games were removed from the Steam shop yesterday, which may hold upwardly a record. As Polygon reports, the removed games include titles such every bit Fruit Candypop, Rage Parking Simulator 2017, SHAPES4, SHAPES5, SHAPES6, and, who could forget, SHAPES7. Sure enough, SteamDB shows that all of the games inwards the listing were updated virtually eighteen hours ago, as well as none of them cause got Steam shop pages anymore (though existing owners should nonetheless hold upwardly able to play them).
Based on the titles, it seems in all likelihood that these are merely about of the "bad actors" Valve was talking virtually inwards May when it announced changes to Trading Cards, though nosotros haven't yet heard from Valve or the developers of these games (Update: See Valve's answer below). Back inwards May, Valve defendant unnamed developers of releasing inexpensive games, sometimes merely 'asset flipped' versions of previous games, exclusively therefore they could mine their ain Trading Cards as well as and then sell them.
"These simulated developers accept payoff of a characteristic nosotros render to all developers on Steam, which is the mightiness to generate Steam keys for their games," wrote Valve. "They generate many thousands of these keys as well as manus them out to bots running Steam accounts, which as well as then idle away inwards their games to collect Trading Cards. Even if no existent players e'er run across or purchase 1 of these simulated games, their developers brand coin past times farming cards."
Last month, a post inwards Valve's developer forums indicated that it would no longer approve large batches of keys for merely whatsoever game. "We're non interested inwards supporting trading menu farming or bot networks at the expense of beingness able to render value as well as service for players," Valve told us.
We've reached out to Valve for comment, every bit good every bit Silicon Echo, the companionship which published the mass of the removed games (and has been criticized for it before).
Update: Valve has responded to our inquiry, telling us that a unmarried "bad actor" who released games nether multiple names—one of which is Silicon Echo, every bit mentioned above—was engaging inwards what Valve considers "extreme actions" past times releasing "nearly-identical products," "abusing Steam keys," as well as "misrepresenting themselves on the Steam store." As a result, Valve says it has removed the games as well as ended its concern human relationship amongst the individual. "Spamming cloned games or manipulating our shop tools isn’t something nosotros volition tolerate," concludes the statement. "Our priority is helping players observe games they volition relish playing."
Read the amount controversy from Valve below:
We cause got a full-time squad monitoring reports as well as they identified an number that atomic number 82 to the removal of merely about titles from a few dissimilar Steamworks accounts. These accounts were generating a lot of reports as well as frustration from customers as well as other developers. It turns out that the bad actors were all the same soul operating nether dissimilar accounts.
What nosotros establish was a ready of extreme actions past times this soul that was negatively impacting the functionality of the shop as well as our tools. For example, this soul was mass-shipping nearly-identical products on Steam that were impacting the store’s functionality as well as making it harder for players interested inwards finding fun games to play. This developer was also abusing Steam keys as well as misrepresenting themselves on the Steam store.
As a result, nosotros cause got removed those games from the Steam Store as well as ended our concern human relationship amongst them.
The Steam platform is open, but nosotros create inquire developers to abide by our customers as well as our policies. Spamming cloned games or manipulating our shop tools isn’t something nosotros volition tolerate. Our priority is helping players observe games they volition relish playing.
Thanks PC GAMER
