If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Developer banned from Steam for naming studio Very Positive

The account was removed for "review manipulations"

A developer was banned from Steam for naming their company "Very Positive," in an attempt to trick players to believe that this was the reviews rating.

As spotted by Simon Carless in his GameDiscoverCo newsletter, the developer changed the "Developer" and "Publisher" fields of their Steam page for the words "Very Positive," making it easy to mistake these for the actual reviews for the title, Emoji Evolution, when looking at a glance.

Talking to Vice, the developer of Emoji Evolution said that they knew "that reviews have a huge impact on the customer's decision," and upon noticing that the developer and publisher fields were close to the reviews rating, as well as using the same colour, they decided to "use it for [their] purposes." (see image shared by Simon Carless, right)

At the time, the developer assumed that it wouldn't "be an issue with Steam," saying that Valve "fully understands how minor this trick is."

However, as the story continued to get coverage from major outlets, Valve ended up banning the developer's account for "review manipulations," they said on Twitter.

They added that they "disagreed" with the accusation and will contact Steam support.

If you need tips about how to get the most out of your game's Steam page, we have a GamesIndustry.biz Academy guide about this on this page.

Related topics
Author
Marie Dealessandri avatar

Marie Dealessandri

Deputy Editor

Marie Dealessandri joined GamesIndustry.biz in 2019 to head its Academy section. A journalist since 2012, she started in games in 2016 at B2B magazine MCV. She can be found (rarely) tweeting @mariedeal, usually on a loop about Baldur’s Gate and the Dead Cells soundtrack. GI resident Moomins expert.