The chaos around fake Steam curators is ramping up as 11 Bit Studios, developers of Frostpunk, has plunged into the fray. They said that “they are done providing game keys to Steam curators as most of them are concealing their reseller identities behind the reviews and not contributing to the community in any way”.
After Cowcat sparked the discussion in recent days, Valve also acted quick to take notice and ban some of those “scamming” curators permanently. This move will also be followed by some improvements in the curator system of Steam, but more developers supporting Cowcat’s cause might be a game changer. Especially studios like 11 Bit, who also made This War of Mine and Children of Morta, might bring in more attention to the matter.
Developers also revealed that they are constantly being flooded with emails that pose as curators and ask for game keys, literally tons of them. This also shows that the current state of the Steam curator system is allowing such sneaky acts to take place easily.
This will probably be an interesting matter to watch in upcoming weeks, especially if more developers take a step forward to defend each other.