In response to a question about Line of Defense’s status on Steam, developer Derek Smart (yes, that Derek Smart) has told players that he has decided to pull the game from Steam.
“My reasons for moving the game are very simple. I am tired of the noise, the attacks, the harassment, the distractions here on Steam,” he writes. “Steam has become too big for Valve to be able to effectively police every aspect of it and where anti-social misfits reside. They know this, the Steam community knows this, and we the developers and publishers, know this.”
He cites “review bombing” and a lack of developer control over the “#1 source of harassment: the front facing Steam store page” in the form of review comments and ratings. The game’s Steam reviews currently stand at 122 negative to 21 positive.
Smart says that future purchases of Line of Defense will be handled through PlayFab and Xsolla and that everyone who owns the game on Steam will be granted a new copy on the new service. “Once the game goes final, then I will re-enable it again on Steam, then update it,” he writes. “At that point, as with our other games, it will be sold at all our other partner sites.”
