So this happened just recently.

A game called Butsbal (yeah, Butsbal, it's some kind of a game) was accidentally deleted from some Steam accounts. Mostly it was from users who had gotten the key from bundles. I was actually one of those people, although I really hadn't heard about the game (or about "owning" it) until now.

Apparently the developer wanted to deactivate existing unredeemed keys, but accidentally deactivated both redeemed and unredeemed keys. Seriously.
OK, so as this is Steam and all that, apparently, this can't even be undone!!!

The developer says:
"I noticed that keys are still being activated from the IndieGameStand and Desura Sources. So I wanted to revoke any unused keys. But by mistake I also revoked the keys that were activated. Which you guys noticed. These keys were all Desura keys. Sadly I can't undo this."


Here's some random thoughts I have about this:

1) The developer wants to deactivate unredeemed keys so that they can't be used anymore. Seriously, WTF?! If those are legally obtained, then it shouldn't matter when one activates them.

2) OK, so on Steam you can accidentally delete people's games with no undo option. This is totally great! When is this feature coming to other stores?

3) DRM-free rules!!! This wouldn't be an issue with GOG, Humble, Itch.io, etc. DRM-free downloads.

4) What the hell is "Butsbal"? Is this developer thinking that this great landmark title is so huge that it's really worth all this to do stuff like this.


For Steam user comments and developer's explanations:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/375330/discussions/0/1734342161870915871/

Maybe the developer can't fix this directly but I suspect that by working with Steam, the matter will be taken care of. Mistakes happen, as do solutions. And hopefully they'll change that mechanism so the problem can't occur again.

Interesting problem. Should bring it up with Steam, they might be able to help. Make sure to have proof of purchase etc.

Similar happened with Evolvation:
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/EGOtM/evolvation-revoked-dev-responding-mod-no-addtl-tickets-whitelisted-in-sgtools-game-free-now#3vN8IaI

The way they fixed it, they made the game temporarily free for everyone on Steam.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/your_regular_reminder_about_gamersgate_the_storefront_being_suspect_in_their_actions/post1

Surprise. Valve is good at one thing, and that is giving publishers and developers the tools to truly control every facet of a game. They built a walled garden, but unlike Apple, they didn't build it so that solely they could be in charge of it and control its every aspect, but to give publishers the power.

This is a small developer who noticed that keys from now defunct sources are being activated, so for some reason he wanted them down. Apparently he had a button for that - which can undermine efforts like zeogold's community giveaway for Valve's garden which more or less relies on bundles or deals, including from defunct sources like Desure or IndieGameStand.

He also revoked all activated keys, again with the click of a button. The game was now gone from the libraries of many people.

Point out that these two things are realistic issues with Valve's systems and you get dismissed, like it has no possibility of happening, like Good Guy Valve has the stuff to make sure you don't fall to all this crap. Good Guy Valve didn't make their garden to protect you from the evils of the publishers, it made it so that publishers can embrace them fully and wholly. This is one example.

I am aware it would be dismissed as "some stupid small indie developer messing up," however. That no big or respectable corporation like EA or Activision Blizzard do something like this. But if the steam fanboys bury their heads in the sand with a myriad of excuses, there is at least an example that this crap is indeed possible, and if they don't believe it, why bother.

Thanks gixgox!

I'm not sure if that game is worth all the trouble.
It is multi-player only and has lots of bad reviews.
The dev should update it and add a single-player mode.

Well, first I was like "this isn't that different from GOG, like when Fallout kept disappearing and reappearing in people's GOG accounts", but I guess the important differences are:

1. Apparently on Steam the publisher itself can revoke games from people's account? On GOG it has to go through the GOG staff I presume, so that gives some extra "security" to us end users so that some assholish developer like Fred Fish or whatever his name was decides to delete games from user's account because GOG staff made fun of people who like to dress up as women or men or Hitler, just to spite the store and its users.

2. Not sure what to think about the "can't undo it, sorryyy!". Maybe this is related to the game keys being from a third-party Steam-key site (Desura) which is not online anymore, so there is no way for the publisher to check which users had a (redeemed) key already?

Can't Valve help with this, check which users had the game before they were revoked? Or is Valve like "Sorry, not our problem, we have a hands-off policy with our store and let the publishers handle it all as we need all our existing Valve staff to count our monies...".

EDIT: Ok so the developer solved it by promising a free key to everyone who contacts him. I guess that is one solution, giving the game for free.

That's not solving the problem really. It's just attempting to somehow save the situation.

Like somebody on the thread said, it's not a good solution where you use your email and give your email to that guy. If he's not responsible enough to make the right decisions and push the right buttons, then how can he be responsible with other people's email information?

And all the parties in the past transactions have been the bundle sites, and Steam. I really don't see how the solution can involve this guy and emailing him at all? Well, I guess since he not only was part of the problem, he was the root cause of the problem, then he must be part of the solution too.

Then again, I really don't understand how this developer could ever have the power to deactivate keys which were handled by bundle sites and Steam entirely. Yeah, totally not worth it.
Like I said, I didn't even know I had it, and it looks like the kind of game that I would never play.

It's more about the principle behind this that matters. Imagine if somebody could take back your physical items and then just go "ooops, sorry".

"Hey that USB cord, I wanted to pull back all the unsold ones, but I accidentally stole all the sold ones too. But hey guys, just email me, and maybe I'll send you a replacement cord sooner or later."

So basically, it was learning experience that proved : 1. Not just Steam but individual publishers too can remotely delete their games from your account at any time, and 2. If it's deleted by publishers, then it can't be undeleted by Steam? Or reaffirming that what you're "subscribing" to on Steam is not just an open-ended rental with a kill-switch, but that each "SteamWorks protected" game actually comes with two remote kill-switches (one for Steam, one for the Publisher).

And that's why every 'DRM-Free' Steam game from this list is DRM-Free in practise only if you actually have it backed up offline...

This highlights a glaring flaw in Valve's freedom given to the devs it allows to sell games through their storefront.

If the revocation tools are this prone to user error, they need to tweak them ASAP. Whether that means putting in actual work toward granulated control of what gets revoked and what doesn't or a "we'll slap together a paragraph or two or three confirmation pop-ups to make sure dev x isn't going to nuke every activation of their title" or something else, it's clear something needs to change if more developers are creating these types of messes.

With the growing rates of third-party sites accumulating massive amounts of keys through certain avenues (mass bot collection through lackadaisical giveaways, fishbrained near-bankrupt companies selling off their company with entire databases intact to shady buyers, people running broad-scale fraud scams to gain access to keys, the list goes on), I get the worry some developers (in theory the small ones who don't have the luxury of taking hits to their own revenue sources when people opt to buy through such sites) have when they notice "Oh, that's a key from something that ended long ago - someone must be selling them" and taking action against that. Unfortunately the actions taken are far too all encompassing thanks to Valve's ineffective/confusing dev UI tools and people who did legitimately contribute to the dev(s) affected by the shadier dealings are getting caught in the crossfire.

Read up on things regarding the other game where this recently happened (Evolvation) and you'll find that Valve's response to this sort of thing tends to fall into the latter.

Something to take into consideration here - very rarely has Valve ever been involved in directly dispensing keys to any bundle outlet. Keys given to those sites typically come via publishers (and developers, when said developers don't have a publisher for any reason) when Steam keys are involved and their issuance is usually limited to a set amount (obviously what amount varies - no doubt the logistical back and forth between people running the bundle involves them relaying a general number of keys to be generated and dispensed throughout the window of time the bundle is actively sold, with any runoff of unsold keys ideally being reported back to the publishers and/or devs who provided them to avoid potentiality that they just get thrown up on a third-party site at a future date).

There's no point to DRM-Free if you don't download the files, is there?

Eh?

Same thing for games on This List. They're DRM-Free only if you back it up offline (a practical example: Fallout disappearing).