Yesterday, Bethesda was spotted responding to negative Starfield reviews on Steam, arguing against many of the critiques like the abundance of loading screens and vast empty planets. While the responses are still coming under fire, many other developers say that this is normal as Steam now encourages directly replying.
“For those who aren’t familiar, this is becoming industry standard,” BAFTA-nominated writer (El Paso, South Park: Snow Day, Hypnospace Outlaw) Xalavier Nelson Jr. tweeted. “Because of how important of a role Steam ratings play, and the proven ability to sometimes flip negative reviews based off of simply interacting with a user, it’s spreading. This is just a very big game doing it.”
“We’ve been doing this for a few years now,” Gloomwood creator and DUSK dev Dillon Rogers said. “A lot of people will flip their review if you reach out and let them know you’re working on the issue or helping them resolve a bug. It makes a *big* difference when it comes to the algorithm, actually.”
Thunderful Games PR manager James Bartholomeou added, “Bethesda is doing wrong, but Steam heavily encourages responding to your reviews.”
Bethesda, however, has not addressed the complaints in negative reviews by promising fixes or offering to help with issues. Instead, when one user wrote that the empty planets were boring, it responded by saying that no, they aren’t.
“Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design – but that’s not boring,” Bethesda wrote. “The intention of Starfield’s exploration is to evoke a smallness in players and make you feel overwhelmed.”
Indie game Kaiju Ultimax’s Twitter added, “Most indie devs are correcting people who are saying things that are straight-up lies. Bethesda is trying to tell people that their opinion is wrong and that their opinion [would] be different if they just played more Starfield. Which is toxic quite frankly.”
Of course, Bethesda isn’t the only triple-A publisher at it. As Nelson Jr. says, it’s a growing standard.
It’s actually one of the few mechanisms that we have *have* for pushing back against toxic/inaccurate narratives cropping up around a title, nowadays – which is why it works!
Prospective players also see both that review and the response, which can impact a purchasing decision. So is it weird? Absolutely. Will it continue to be used – and be used more – as Steam ratings play a role as the visible marker of a video game’s reputation? Absolutely.
So, while this may be a new trend, it isn’t without its controversies, especially as bigger publishers dip their toes into the strategy. Bethesda in particular has come under fire for how it has responded, rather than responding in itself.
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