Tag: Steam

One Month Later: Battleborn’s Free Trial Doesn’t Retain Numbers


It’s been one month since Battleborn started its free trial, and while the game received an early boost it looks like most of those customers aren’t sticking around. While the game peaked out on Steam at 1,561 concurrent users, the last week has seen those numbers fall to an average of 417.9. The number is still much higher than May’s average player count of 82.2, but complaints of long wait times for queues on the forums and the fact that this is just one month out of launch spells bad times ahead for Battleborn.

Overall, the free trial launch failed to bring the concurrency numbers to even 10% of Battleborn’s launch peak of 12,070 so while the number did increase over pre-trial numbers, it wasn’t by much and those numbers are falling quite steadily. Effects on population for the console versions is more difficult to determine.

(Source: Steam Charts)

Banned Steam Seller Is Back, Threatening Steam Users


Gennady Guryanov Alekseevich shouldn’t be selling games on Steam, he was banished from the service in April when Valve discovered that he was using Steam accounts to boost the reviews of his games. In fact, his entire library of games was destroyed: Zi, Julai, and K-Rolik.

Secret Doctrine is a game developed by Luma14Kulan, the alias of Gennady Guryanov Alekseevich and which is currently available on Steam at the high price of $50, despite the aforementioned individual being barred from selling products on it.

Through tough research, MMO Fallout was able to verify that not only is Gennady Guryanov the developer of The Secret Doctrine, but that he is in fact currently going by the username Lama14Kulan. How did we discover this information, you may ask? Via the not-so-subtle about page on the game’s own website.

And since Lama14Kulan is shady enough to get himself banned for underhanded practices, it may not be surprising to see that users are being threatened with lawsuits over their criticism of Guryanov’s business tactics.

For what it’s worth, as with most games of this stripe, while Guryanov may be back on Steam, it hasn’t stopped his game from flopping hard. As of this writing, there is one review of the game (Russian) by a user who is (unsurprisingly) friends with Guryanov. There isn’t a single person playing at this time and sales are expected to be miniscule as publisher Elena Schukina (seen above threatening to sue a user) is trying to play up the controversy as “black PR” to drive more sales.

Given that Guryanov is located in Russia and his game has sold virtually nothing, the threat of lawsuit falls on deaf ears. Members of the community should not allow empty threats from a shady creator stop them from exposing and criticizing problematic players in the Steam economy.

(Source: Guardians of Greenlight)

Greenlight Fraudsters: MechDefender Scams Greenlight Bundle


MechDefender is a recently released game by developer Elite Games Ltd, Vadim Starygin, and one that currently has zero concurrent players, a factor that probably won’t change much so long as Elite Games refuses to give keys to the customers who purchased them. You see, MechDefender was partnered with the OtakuMaker Greenlight Bundle, a Steam bundle where players are given the ability to buy games before they are greenlit on Steam at a major discount in return for a key once the game is approved and on the store (this is not a Valve-sanctioned bundle).

Except that while MechDefender was successfully Greenlit, the developer has no intention of actually giving players keys. Why? Despite no doubt knowing how much money he’d be making from each sale, the developer decided after already taking part that it just wasn’t enough.

So I`m about to close this topic. I`ll give out a few keys to play&test in next topic after patch.
Here is bottom line of this disccusion:
1) At this moment I do not have money from “this bundle”.
2) If you wanna get your four cents back – ask for refund at place where you “spend” your cents.

So the developer sold copies of his game cheap in order to get it approved through Steam Greenlight, and then reneged and has decided that the price is too cheap and the buyers won’t be getting their copies. Normally MMO Fallout takes a position of presuming incompetence over malice, but this practice is an outright scam, one that were it to be pursued in a western court would most definitely result in Elite Games on the losing end.

But Elite Games will happily provide a refund, which it has valued at 4 cents.

And, no, I didnt get any ‘real money’. I would love to give it back. It is around 4 cents per copy. At this point we trying to work out a solution. Any suggestion is welcome.

The developer goes on in the linked thread to begin awkwardly going through the play histories of people criticizing his business decision, questioning their play styles and making conclusions to not give them keys based off of perceived motivations which, as far as consumer law goes, is none of his business.

Alright, alright, he’ll send out the keys. But only to people who have been nice…

Since MechDefender is moving towards release candidate.
Lets try first round of keys? To nice ppl – who wasnt calling me names or put in his??????list.

But you people aren’t real customers in his eyes…

“Just wanna add – you are not my customer. I dont consider you a customer – even if you spend four cents and demanding a gift a 5$ value…”

“…I meant not you personaly – but all users who want copy for four cents. They are not customers – including or excluding you – depens on your deeds. I did lost count and stuff.”

And don’t think you scumbag customers thinking you’re entitled to a product just because it was sold to you are going to get this deal again in the future, because you won’t.

And for other games – I can only do this with MechDefender. You have to meet me at half-way.
If you dont like this plan, and insist on more games for four cents – that will not happen. Ask for refund.

A quick glance at the forums shows a familiar field of banned accounts that has become so common with developers engaged in shady practices. While Elite Games has sworn off of Otaku bundles going forward, perhaps it is best for consumers to keep in mind exactly how Starygin feels about his customers, or whatever he calls them because they aren’t customers in his eyes.

Elite Games was founded by Russian developer Vadim Starygin and his wife Tatiana Budarina. The company operates out of Kaliningrad and has been releasing titles for nearly ten years.

Black Desert Online Hits Steam: 40% Off This Month


Black Desert Online is available to purchase on Steam, right now! To celebrate the launch of the action MMO on Steam’s platform, players can snag a copy for 40% off for the rest of the month. That means getting in on the action will cost as little as $6. There will also be several in-game sales as well as a few drop events going on until the end of the month. In anticipation of a flood of players, Kakao Games has set up extra servers to share the load.

To better support the additional influx of players, Kakao Games will employ extra Olvia speed servers, some of which will be exclusively reserved to cater for new players that are coming through Steam. Users can choose to play on the exclusive servers or to jump into the greater community straight away. Special “Olvia” servers will help players to level-up quickly and catch up with the existing Black Desert Online community.

For more information, check out the link below. While you’re here, take a gander at Black Desert Online’s latest trailer.

(Source: Steam)

Valve’s Trading Card Update Shoots Shovelware Games In The Heart


Those of you who use or follow Steam in any capacity are no doubt aware of the high volume of low effort shovelware being heaped onto the service, increasingly from developers out of Russia, that have popped up on Steam for one purpose: Farming trading cards. These games use unscrupulous methods, through bot voting or through key bribery, to get their games greenlit, after which the game is immediately besieged by thousands of bots who idle the game and then sell the trading cards for money or break the cards down into gems which are then sold for money. The bots make money, the developer gets a cut of the sales, and others have more incentive to throw their shovelware onto Steam for an easy, if ill-gotten, profit.

The practice has become so popular that there are entire Steam groups dedicated to buying up these low quality games for the purpose of farming cards in large quantities.

Today’s Steam update takes those bad actors out back and buries them next to the rose bushes. In order to be eligible for trading cards, a game must obtain a certain confidence level showing that people are actually playing. In the update notice, Valve attributes changing the trading card system as being to cut down on faux data.

As we mentioned in our last post, the algorithm’s primary job is to chew on a lot of data about games and players, and ultimately decide which games it should show you. These Trading Card farming games produce a lot of faux data, because there’s a lot of apparent player activity around them. As a result, the algorithm runs the risk of thinking that one of these games is actually a popular game that real players should see.

Thankfully this system is retroactive, meaning you’ll receive any cards you should have once they are made available.

Instead of starting to drop Trading Cards the moment they arrive on Steam, we’re going to move to a system where games don’t start to drop cards until the game has reached a confidence metric that makes it clear it’s actually being bought and played by genuine users. Once a game reaches that metric, cards will drop to all users, including all the users who’ve played the game prior to that point. So going forward, even if you play a game before it has Trading Cards, you’ll receive cards for your playtime when the developer adds cards and reaches the confidence metric.

Valve has confidence that this system will function better than Steam Greenlight, whose failure to curate allowed the games onto the marketplace to begin with, due to the extra variables and larger base compared to the relative few who use Greenlight. Most recently, Valve made major changes to gifting Steam games in order to combat bad hombres.

(Source: Steam)

PSA: Alan Wake Is Disappearing, Get It Now 90% Off


Alan Wake is being put to bed permanently, so if you want to get your hands on the 2012 title, now may be your last chance. Originally released in 2012, Alan Wake’s developer/publisher Remedy Entertainment has hit a snag; their license on some of the music in the game is expiring. As a result, the game is being removed from sale on May 15. To send the game off in style, Remedy Entertainment has announced a 90% sale that will begin March 13 and run for 48 hours.

You’ll be able to pick up Alan Wake as well as its DLC and American Nightmare for 90% off, but if you’re going to grab yourself a copy then do so fast. The title becomes unavailable on the 15th.

(Source: Steam)

The Secret World Legends Hits In June


Funcom’s reboot of The Secret World, dubbed Secret World Legends, has been confirmed for a June 26 release date. The title is making the transition from buy-to-play fully fledged MMO to a free to play shared world experience with revamped combat, upgraded visuals, and more.

Secret World Legends plunges players into a shadowy war against the supernatural in an adventure that crosses our world with the realms of ancient myth and legend. As players traverse the globe unraveling complex investigations into the unknown, they’ll need to uncover clues and use their own wits as much as their characters’ abilities. A highly extensive and customizable arsenal of firearms, weapons, gear and otherworldly powers will give players the strength to battle the forces of darkness as they dig deeper into these vast and mysterious lands. Players can go at it alone and enjoy the over 100 hours of story at their own pace, or team up with others as they explore the world and unravel its mysteries.

Characters from the current The Secret World incarnation will not transfer over to the new game when it launches in June. For more information, check out the video below or head over to the official website.

Prey Developer: Consider Steam’s Refund Policy Your Demo


Prey launches on PC and consoles this week, and while gamers on Xbox and Playstation were able to gauge their interest thanks to a pre-release demo, PC gamers haven’t been afforded the same luxury. Thankfully, Co-Creative Director Raphael Colantonio has a solution: Buy the game anyway, and just make use of Steam’s refund policy. Steam, for those out of the know, allows automatic refunds for games within two weeks or two hours of gameplay, whichever comes first.

“It’s just a resource assignment thing. We couldn’t do a demo on both the console and on the PC, we had to choose. And besides, PC has Steam. Steam players can just return the game [prior to playing] 2 hours so it’s like a demo already.

There are a few important notes to keep in mind that if you’re using Colantonio’s suggestion, foremost being that you have to buy the game through Steam. Registering a third party key will invalidate your eligibility for a refund. Furthermore, the two hour gameplay cutoff isn’t a hard line, but you’ll be dealing with Steam’s customer support and the good will of whoever you happen to be sent to. Finally, there are no guidelines for what constitutes refund abuse, so if you’ve been refunding a lot of games Valve may cut you off.

Otherwise, just think of Prey on PC requiring a $60-80 deposit, depending on your region.

(Source: Aus Gamer)

KingsIsle Wants Help Getting On Steam


KingsIsle, makers of popular MMOs including Wizard 101 and Pirate 101, have a new game coming out: EverClicker. If you can’t tell by the title, it is a clicker game. Effectively, KingsIsle wants to learn about the process of submitting and having a game put up on Steam, and EverClicker happens to be the guinea pig that will be going through said trial.

It’s easier to start our journey onto Steam with a game that isn’t hugely complicated with a lot of moving parts. Starting with EverClicker on Steam allows us to learn the process. If successful, we hope to be able to offer more of our games on Steam and other distribution outlets in the future, which could include games such as Wizard101 and Pirate101.

If you’d like to see more of KingsIsle’s games on Steam, head on over to the EverClicker page and check it out.

The Exiled Makes Season 3 Free For All


Sandbox MMO The Exiled this week announced that Season 3 will be available for free, temporarily removing the seven day trial and allowing all players to play for the entirety of the month, regardless of if they’ve purchased the client. Seasons in The Exiled run for one month, after which progress is wiped and players start anew.

Unlimited Free Trial during Season #3: In order to make it easier for new players to get into The Exiled we have decided to get rid of the 7-day trial period during Season #3. Yes, that means that you and all of your friends can play The Exiled for free for the coming four weeks. Just start the game and you’re in. You can (and should) still buy a Supporter Pack to unlock more character slots and get unique visuals for your character but it is not required anymore to play the game

Check out The Exiled on Steam.