9.21.2017

On review bombing

So your favorite game or the game you're investigating prior to a purchase is suddenly dropping in user review score on Steam? Or maybe you didn't notice the drop because... this was the first time you were looking into the game and decided to skip this one because of the bad review score?

Steam is implementing a review bombing graph which enables the customer to see when exceptionally good or bad reviews have been posted.This as a response to the Pewdiepie controversy where Campo Santo issued an DMCA takedown notice against his Firewatch videos. Apparently a lot of Pewdiepie fans went mad and review bombed tons of bad scores on Steam, and by that lowered the overall score of Firewatch. With the new graph, customers can see if bad scores have been posted in a short period of time and make their own opinion on why this is. If a game gets bad (or even good) reviews in a short period of time, something can be fishy. In this way Steam adds a layer of "caution" for the customer to consider before pushing - or refraining from - that lovely purchase button.