Steam users outraged over “disgusting” new advertising technique
ValveA new wave of advertisements has triggered discontent among Steam users, as some developers and users appear to be resorting to new advertising methods by commenting on game reviews left by players.
A Redditor posted screenshots to the Steam community, revealing comments in response to reviews of games such as Dave the Diver and SnowRunner.
The comments contain unsolicited advertising for other Steam games, and many have criticized this approach as “disgusting.”
One such comment reads: “Hello! You might be interested. We are making a similar game! We plan to finish it by the end of summer! Check out the page of our game. If you like it, add the game to your wishlist, it will help with promotion! Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience!” The comment then includes a link to the game’s page on the Steam store.
This controversial method appears to be a widespread issue on Steam at the time of writing, with many other players sharing similar experiences on Reddit. The community has spoken against these advertising tactics, even going so far as to report the comments and the advertised games on Steam.
One user aimed to “name and shame” one particular game for engaging in this “disgusting type of advertisement.” Other comments included strong warnings and suspicions against such practices, such as “Those are scams, no one would advertise like this.”
“It’s a scam. They advertise something they threw together in a couple of hours, and literally anyone that buys it is pure profit,” one user wrote.
“I wouldn’t click on the links; I’m assuming they’re fake sites where they take your info,” another warned.
While the digital marketplace has faced its fair share of controversies in the past, this new form of advertising takes a different and more personal approach by targeting individual users’ game reviews. It remains to be seen how Steam will deal with the new wave of spam advertisements.