Steam In Review: March 20 Edition

How did this week go in Steam?

Another week is behind us and that means it’s time for another edition of the Steam Week In Review. Valheim remains in the #1 position on Steam’s bestseller list six weeks running while Forza Horizon 4 unsurprisingly came in at #2. Marvel’s Avengers saw a boost to players with the launch of Clint Barton Hawkeye, and a lot of games are running free weekend promotions right now.

Releases

Mr. Prepper: Mr. Prepper launched this week by Playway S.A. and so far the game seems pretty darn popular. The game his 5,902 concurrent players at launch peak and currently carries an 81% very positive rating among 377 reviews. Positive reviews mention the story, the pacing, and the depth of the game mechanics as a positive, while critics have taken umbrage with the amount of grind and constant demand to address one’s needs (hunger, etc). Mr. Prepper has received two patches since launch on March 18.
Cartel Tycoon: Cocaine Simulator 2021. Published by tinyBuild, Cartel Tycoon currently sits at a 71% mostly positive rating among 121 users. Released into early access on March 18, reviewers praise Cartel Tycoon as a refreshing twist on what is otherwise a logistics simulator. Critics meanwhile describe the game is unfairly punishing with an unhelpful tutorial and little rewards to balance the difficulty.
Star Dynasties: Currently sitting at a 70% mostly positive rating on Steam among 55 reviews. Star Dynasties is another early access launch from this last week. Positive reviews point to the game effectively being Crusader Kings in space. Critics have noted shallow gameplay mechanics and that the space theme has little to no bearing on the gameplay.
Defense of the Ass: Didn’t launch.
Can’t Drive This: Full release of a well-received early access title is unsurprisingly well received.

Retired Games

There were a lot of retired games on this week’s list and I’m not entirely sure that this is the whole list. Outside of the standard retiring of old DLC and expired licenses, one connection you’ll find with a lot of the retired games is either very negative review scores or basically no review scores at all. So either the game did incredibly poorly critically or incredibly poorly from a sales perspective.

Banned Apps

There is one notable ban to discuss this week and it’s technically not a “ban” but Valve rejecting a title for sale. Over a month ago we listed Super Seducer 3 among the five games everyone wanted for that week. Super Seducer 3 never launched on Steam on that week, or at all, due to Valve refusing to approve the launch at the eleventh hour. The issue stems from Valve’s strict and often inconsistent policies on adult games that use real people.

Both the game and its demo have been listed as retired and removed from the store with comments by Richard la Ruina that they’ll be looking at other options to launch on.

We will most likely try to launch on another store on Tuesday, but part of me would rather not release the game at all, or release it for free, than release it and sell a handful of copies. We will think about what to do over the weekend.