Art of Stealth removed from Steam over developer misconduct

Art of Stealth removed from Steam over developer misconduct

Art of Stealth removed from Steam over developer misconduct

 

Last night, the game “Art of Stealth” was removed from Steam after Valve discovered that the developer, Matan Cohen, created several Steam accounts and created multiple positive reviews for his game.  

This is obviously a case of developer misconduct, with the developer attempting to fool consumers by artificially improving his game’s perception by posting positive reviews. Valve has now ceased their business relationship with this game’s developer, Matan Cohen, removing the game from sale on their platform. 

Those who have purchased this title will retain access to it, though nobody will be able to purchase this game on the Steam platform moving forward. 

 

We (Valve) have identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the developer of this game, Matan Cohen. The developer appears to have created multiple Steam accounts to post a positive review for their own game. 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 Matan Cohen and removing this game from sale. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library.

 

This comes mere hours after Matan Cohen’s studio declared war on Jim Sterling, a popular YouTube personality who called the game “absolute terrible rubbish” in a recent video ( which is embedded below). The developer has filed a DMCA takedown request on Jim Sterling’s video and has reportedly threatened legal action, stating that Sterling has “no respect (for) software engineers ” and is “trying to damage a small team which is new in the industry”. 

 While Matan Cohen’s Studio claims that “This is not the end. This is only the beginning”, it seems unlikely that the developer will continue to seek legal action against the video game pundit since Valve will no longer be a source of income for the developer. 

 

 

It seems now that Valve is attempting to tackle developer misconduct on their platform, especially when it comes to fake reviews. Recently Steam changed their review system to allow gamers to only see reviews from those who purchased the game on Steam, allowing gamers to filter away reviews that are from users of free/promotional copies of games or from those who bought codes from 3rd party key resellers.  

Hopefully Steam will be a little more transparent in the future when/if they remove other developers from the platform, as at this time Valve has not presented any evidence against the developer and has only written two paragraphs to explain the issue to Steam users.  

Valve is a privately owned company and can enforce its own rules at their own discretion, though it would be nice for Valve to be more transparent about these kinds of issues in the future. 

 

You can join the discussion on Art of Stealth’s removal from Steam on the OC3D Forums. 

 

Art of Stealth removed from Steam over developer misconduct

Art of Stealth removed from Steam over developer misconduct

 

Last night, the game “Art of Stealth” was removed from Steam after Valve discovered that the developer, Matan Cohen, created several Steam accounts and created multiple positive reviews for his game.  

This is obviously a case of developer misconduct, with the developer attempting to fool consumers by artificially improving his game’s perception by posting positive reviews. Valve has now ceased their business relationship with this game’s developer, Matan Cohen, removing the game from sale on their platform. 

Those who have purchased this title will retain access to it, though nobody will be able to purchase this game on the Steam platform moving forward. 

 

We (Valve) have identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the developer of this game, Matan Cohen. The developer appears to have created multiple Steam accounts to post a positive review for their own game. 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 Matan Cohen and removing this game from sale. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library.

 

This comes mere hours after Matan Cohen’s studio declared war on Jim Sterling, a popular YouTube personality who called the game “absolute terrible rubbish” in a recent video ( which is embedded below). The developer has filed a DMCA takedown request on Jim Sterling’s video and has reportedly threatened legal action, stating that Sterling has “no respect (for) software engineers ” and is “trying to damage a small team which is new in the industry”. 

 While Matan Cohen’s Studio claims that “This is not the end. This is only the beginning”, it seems unlikely that the developer will continue to seek legal action against the video game pundit since Valve will no longer be a source of income for the developer. 

 

 

It seems now that Valve is attempting to tackle developer misconduct on their platform, especially when it comes to fake reviews. Recently Steam changed their review system to allow gamers to only see reviews from those who purchased the game on Steam, allowing gamers to filter away reviews that are from users of free/promotional copies of games or from those who bought codes from 3rd party key resellers.  

Hopefully Steam will be a little more transparent in the future when/if they remove other developers from the platform, as at this time Valve has not presented any evidence against the developer and has only written two paragraphs to explain the issue to Steam users.  

Valve is a privately owned company and can enforce its own rules at their own discretion, though it would be nice for Valve to be more transparent about these kinds of issues in the future. 

 

You can join the discussion on Art of Stealth’s removal from Steam on the OC3D Forums. 

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