Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
the dev did:
1) probably revoke all batches of Steam keys they have sent out to bundle sites they had a sale agreement with.
(affected users got the yellow Steam support alert)
2) deleted the games file depots.
(even if you still own the game because you got it from Steam directly, you can't download it)
3) gave irrational reasons to why they did what they did
(they still state those at the present time)
4) delete all forum posts and threads before this happened and as this here evolved they also deleted everything and posted a pinned thread of their own, stating the same irrational reasons.
the game was from the end of the bundle spam era, so it has thousands of owners which are all defrauded at the present time.
the game was at least in two bundles one of which was hosted by indiegala. so he surely got money from the bundle
https://isthereanydeal.com/game/marwinandevolutionstone/info/
here is what should and probably will happen:
1) all revocations will be reverted (that is not a difficult task for Valve)
2) the file depots will be reinstated (that is not a difficult task for Valve)
3) the dev will get banned from being a partner (that is not a difficult task for Valve)
I would assume affected users could use the Support section to report that the game is no longer in their libraries. Although it's difficult to do considering all of the changes the dev made. This link is specific to that game's appid and should help those affected:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithGame/?appid=511670
Nope, the dev threw a temper tantrum and revoked all copies.
Well, I wouldn't be surprised if it was, indeed, hacked - stuff happens.
No wonder Steam now will require 2FA from developers too - this is just another example of what happens without control.
Oh, btw - this game has (had?) community items - cards and derivatives. At the moment on the market not a single one of those are available. Can't say if it was automatically taken down by Steam since game is essentially doesn't exist anymore, or if sellers just rushed ahead and took it all down individually (I think it was Steam, actually).
But also - since game is not in users' libraries - no boosters can be created anymore...
Meanwhile - developer was taking a cut from those market transactions as well - as long as his game was in the store and he had an agreement with Valve. Not anymore, I guess - whatever happens further.
Not a biggest issue, imo (though some traders and collectors might disagree) - but just a cherry on top of this particular sh*t-sundae.
P.S. I actually went ahead and sent a ticket to support - will see what happens...
though I wouldn't hold my breath, tbh...
It say "The CD Key you activated for Marwin And The Evolution Stone was revoked at the request of the publisher. It is no longer valid and cannot be redeemed on any account."
How (and why) devs are allowed to do that without give users the possibility to demonstrate the legitimate purchase??
Honestly - such a childish behavior...
Even if he was, indeed, harassed and tangled in some lawsuits - idk, life sometimes is stranger than fiction - still, his moves are on par with Digital Homicide fame... Hold on! Maybe he took an inspiration from that?
https://steamdb.info/app/511670/history/
About 20 hours ago you can see it all getting torn down. Then 3 hours ago the name gets restored along with the last depot. Now just an hour ago the depot was removed again.
Whole forum page was removed - dev's having a temper tantrum or a nervous breakdown.
How Indie Gala suppose to help if developer revoked ALL keys?
Even if they somehow have extra keys - 7 years later! - those keys will not be working anyway.
I guess you haven't had that key activated previously?
My situation is a bit different - I had this game on my account for 7 years, and now it's gone.
I also submitted a ticket with Steam support - so far no response.
Was there before dev started nuking everything, saw the reason dev gave, people got upset, and dev snap at them.
1) Yes the dev revoked all keys, the keys were for indiegala, and go go <--- which gogo has a scam history that refuse to pay devs for their keys that were sold via the site.
2) Seem have deleted some depots just like you said.
3) The reason dev gave for doing all that is because the police were harassing him/her for over 5 years, and dev said that the police following up on a false report claiming that the dev made a suicide game, and dev said it is illegal in Turkey for such game, which the dev also said the police refusing to listen. I asked the dev why didn't just contest the claims in court, or sue the department for harassment over false claims because the dev said the game has no suicide in game. I believe my post got over shadow when people bomb dev with demands of new keys, and getting upset with dev, which I never got an answer from dev at that point before the nuking happen, all I know dev kept going on saying no one play the game, and only one person played it in the last 3 months, and telling people they have no idea what drama dev had to deal with, that was it before the nuke of the discussions.
For last part 1,2,3 yeah I think Valve could do that, but I have feeling people that redeem game via key might not get the game back only those that bought it via steam. I had redeem the game via key, but not bother if game never returns to my library either lol.
Since we aren't there - we can't say for sure that whatever dev said isn't happening - after all, Turkey is, indeed, strange place to say the least.
Nevertheless - the way he's dealing with the issue is not proportional or in any way directed at responsible parties. He's (allegedly) harassed by police or something - but takes it on Steam users.
And if people play it or not - that might be an issue that has something to do with the quality of the game - let's call it as it is (was), it was pretty much a shovelware. But even if he is upset that he didn't get recognition for it - in a good way - it is still not a reason to pretty much rob everyone and run away.
He could've delisted game from the store, or even stopped partnership with Valve altogether - that would've made game not available for purchase, not visible to anyone but people who already have it, but people would still have it in their libraries - with community items and other things.
After all, we still have Digital Homicide games - after al those years - which, again, nobody played ever. ;P
As for restoring game to affected accounts...
I guess people who had keys sitting on IG or some other place, not activated yet - those people are out of luck unless somehow Valve will issue replacement keys and send them to affected sites. But as far as I know that never happened before. And especially not after such a long time.
As for people who activated those keys way back when - and I am one of those people - yellow alert notification has a date there - when the game was activated, and also notice itself has a date when deactivation happened. And in support ticket - also those dates listed. So, imho, we wouldn't have to prove that we bought the game, or where we got it from , or whatever else - it was there for 7 years - if some fraud was going on dev should've dealt with it way earlier, and in a different manner anyway.
And yes - +1 to game count was nice, but not critical. And making boosters and badges was, again, nice - but not something I will cry or loose sleep over.
But if this situation is not dealt with appropriately by Valve - it sets a very bad precedent. So next time some other psychologically immature or disturbed developer has some issues again - we might face the same scenario happening. And again, and again... Sounds nice, right?
And Valve's reputation is on the line here too - it is their service after all. So if users can't be sure that tomorrow any game can't be revoked all of a sudden because some dev had a bad day - will those users stay or move to GOG, or Epic, or just revert to good old physical no-DRM ways to buy and play games?