Indie game publisher Insel Games have been banned from Steam after an internal e-mail was leaked online via Reddit showing they intended to skew reviews for their sci-fi game Wild Buster. The company’s CEO tried to get their own employees to leave a positive review and many employees refused to do so. One of the e-mails from the CEO reads as follows…
“Of course I cannot force you to write a review (let alone tell you what to write) – but I should not havetto. Neglecting the importance of reviews will ultimately cost jobs. If WB fails, Indel fails. IME fails and then all will have no job next year.
“So I am asking you wither to do the folllowing, buy the game and present me with a receipt until Friday night for which (together with a claim form) you will be reimbursed within 24h or explain to me tomorrow why you did not wish to do this.”
Valve released the following statement..
It has been recently reported on Reddit that the publisher for this game, Insel Games Ltd., have been attempting to manipulate the user review score for their titles on Steam. We have investigated these claims, and have 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.
For these reasons, we are ending our business relationship with Insel Games Ltd. and removing their games from our store. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library.
