Game developers are publicly criticizing Steam for allowing discriminatory harassment to remain visible on their store pages.
According to a new report, bigoted user reviews and coordinated curator campaigns are appearing directly on game listings where they can influence purchasing decisions and sales. The most detailed example involves developer Lawhead and the game Blue Suburbia.
A 2024 review allegedly attacked the developer with both misogynistic and antisemitic language, stating: “A women [sic] who seeks to destroy other’s [sic] career made this… She also probably has dual Israeli citizenship with how pointy her nose is.”
Lawhead reported the review to Steam for violating the platform’s rules against abusive language and discrimination. Steam moderators cleared the review, meaning they decided it didn’t violate community guidelines.
Here’s where the system gets problematic.
Once Steam clears reported content, the same user apparently can’t report it again unless the content is edited. This creates what developers describe as a “dead end” where abusive content stays up permanently even after being flagged. The issue extends beyond individual reviews.
Developers say harassment appears across multiple Steam features. The Steam Curators system allows accounts to publish recommendation lists that appear on store pages. Some curators have built followings by categorizing games based on perceived political content rather than gameplay quality. User-submitted tags can also be weaponized.
Games have been tagged with misleading labels like “political” or “woke” to damage their discoverability in Steam’s recommendation algorithms. In extreme cases, games have been tagged with completely unrelated terms just to misrepresent them to potential buyers. Steam is the dominant PC game storefront globally.
Its store pages combine commerce and community features in one place.
Reviews, forum discussions, curator recommendations, and tags all appear directly adjacent to the purchase button. This means harassment and discrimination aren’t hidden in separate forums but are integrated into the primary sales interface. Review scores directly impact a game’s visibility on Steam.
The platform prominently displays “Recent Reviews” and “All Reviews” ratings alongside total review counts. For smaller or newly released games, negative review campaigns can trigger algorithmic penalties and reduce featuring on the store. They also influence conversion rates as potential buyers often check reviews before purchasing.
When the store page becomes the harassment vector
The developers’ core complaint is that Valve’s moderation resources don’t match Steam’s market power. Valve takes roughly 30% of all PC game revenue through Steam.
Critics argue that this level of profit should enable more robust content moderation, particularly when harassment appears on commercial pages rather than isolated discussion threads.
