Polish studio Acram Digital, who have released games like Steam: Rails to Riches and Eight-Minute Empire, have had all their content scrubbed from Steam after Valve caught them posting fake reviews of their own games.
Purchasers of the company’s games—PC conversions of board game classics—had been complaining of not just the fake reviews (which have since been removed), but also abusive behaviour towards negative reviewers from company employees.
We’ve received a number of reports for Steam review manipulation on the titles Steam: Rails to Riches and Eight-Minute Empire, from Acram Digital. After investigating these reports we have found that the developer, Grzegorz Kubas, has been trying to inflate the user review score for his titles. This is against our policy, and something we take very seriously.
Because of Grzegorz’s actions, we have removed all games/DLC developed by Acram from our store, and will no longer be doing business with him. Existing owners will be able to keep their titles.
In response, Kubas commented below Valve’s update, saying that he alone is to blame, not the entire studio, and that Acram is attempting to argue the decision in emails to Valve.
Dear Players,
You are right. I’m guilty. It came from my frustration of few bad, unfair reviews on Valve’s Steam only. It was stupid action, not something planned. This is my individual, bad behavior, not the team, so I would like to blame me, not the devs. It’s a lesson for the rest of my life and it will not happen again, ever.
We have NEVER paid for any positive reviews. It was only my 6 fake accounts on Steam, done in amateur way, from the same computer, the same method of payment, the same IP. I was very frustrated.
We have great developers, passionate in board games. They work very hard to deliver quality games. We listen to the players and we have implemented the features they asked for.
We have sent the email to Valve regarding this issue and we are waiting for the answer.
Blame me, not the devs please.
I’m very sorry,
Grzegorz Kubas
It’s not every day that Steam gets kicked off Steam.