Incredibly popular games Palworld, Helldivers 2, and Escape from Tarkov were amongst a number of games recently impersonated on Steam by some unscrupulous game developers. This scam, which was undertaken by a number of indie game developers on Steam, involved changing their game's metadata, name, and even images to that of Palworld, or Helldivers 2, and putting them on heavy discount, inviting large numbers of sales.
As you might expect, Valve took a very dim view on this, and the games undertaking this scam were swiftly removed. Unfortunately, it's not known how many unsuspecting gamers were tricked by this despicable ploy, but we have to assume Valve has reached out to them for a refund.
While a number of games by different developers were involved in this, it's likely a singular company or organisation was behind this. The scams were launched at roughly the same time, and targeted a specific number of popular games, one of which, Escape from Tarkov, isn't even available on Steam. It also seems that each of the games foisted on those who bought these games were of a similar type; cheaply made "asset flips". That is, for those unfamiliar with the lingo, games which have been made quickly and cheaply by using asset packs bought for a game engine, such as the Unity engine. These assets are meant to be used to help kickstart creativity and fill gaps, but in the last decade, creativity-barren types have used these assets to create a large number of games which are then sold off cheaply, to try and gain a profit. It's a cynical view of the gaming industry, and one which many gaming-focused creators have taken a dim view of.
It's also a bad look for Valve, who have previously taken flack for their rather lax approach to overseeing the Steam store. While they may have moved fast on this occasion, the number of asset flips and other such games on Steam have raised a number of eyebrows. In this case, the fakes were actually quite difficult to spot, with the developer names even being swapped to create the illusion. Only a look at the reviews would have broken the spell.
Thankfully this particular scam had its back broken very quickly, and hopefully this will be the last we see of such efforts.
