It appears that the creators of a stealth game wasn't too stealthy at all after they're caught red-handed forging positive reviews on Steam. Here's the full story.
Art of Stealth Removed From Steam
Today, Steam announced the removal of Art of Stealth, a first-person shooter that promises "intense stealth" to its fans. Days following its release on the Steam platform, the game has raked in a bunch of negative reviews which prompted the developer, Matan Cohen to take matters into his own hands. According to Steam, Art of Stealth received a couple of positive reviews from accounts that were controlled by the developer himself - which is a clear violation of their review policy. Because of this, Steam removed the listing onto their platform and even stated that they will be cutting off their business relationship with Cohen.
Attracting Attention
Art of Stealth gained popularity after a Youtuber, Jim Sterling reviewed the game on his channel and blatantly showed the flaws of the game and calling it "absolutely terrible" in which Matan Cohen then reacted that caused a stir which can still be seen on Steam's community thread here.
Following the review of Art of Stealth, Cohen stated that they will be filing copyright issues on Jim Sterling's video. These are the grounds for their action:
Jim Sterling has no respect to the game's software engineers
Jim Sterling has no self-respect - trying to damage a small team which is new in the industry
Jim Sterling calls their work "load of crap"
This thread was created prior to Steam's announcement which was just released today. The platform stated that although the game will no longer be available on Steam market, the game will still be available for those that have purchased it on their Steam library.
It's interesting to see if the Art of Stealth team will continue to sue Jim Sterling after the debacle that has had happened on their freshly released title considering that many fans were disappointed - far more than what they've felt after No Man's Sky's fiasco.
