

Endless Legend is taking some heat today after its developers at Amplitude Studios removed a mod from the game’s Steam Workshop selection.

Their reason for doing so is understandable: the mod, which added Chinese language localization to the game, was linking to a pirated version of Endless Legend.

Amplitude informed the creator of the mod that he had to remove the link, or risk having the mod removed entirely, but he refused to comply. In the modder’s defense, the latest version of the game does not support the mod, so he linked to an older version of the game for the mod to work.

As a result of the removal, Chinese gamers bombarded Endless Legend’s reviews section with negative reviews, bringing the Steam user rating down from “Very Positive” to “Mixed,” meaning that it had a lower than 60% review score.

The Endless Legend community on Reddit has since responded by writing their own counter-reviews of Endless Legend to bring the score back up to Mostly Positive, and now Very Positive.

Speaking on Steam, Amplitude Studios developer Frogsquadron wrote:

If I may chip in with our version of the facts. What happened here is very unfortunate, because we’ve tried reaching out and working with the original author of the mod for an actual support of the mod in an official capacity, with a view to support the game in Chinese altogether. We want to make the game available in Chinese, and are ready to work with the mod’s author for their work to be recognized. Unfortunately, despite several attempts at reaching out, including a message that was translated into Chinese to make sure to avoid any miscommunication, we’ve never heard back from the author of the mod. And still, the negative reviews pour in, regretting the lack of support for Chinese, or that the mod doesn’t work anymore. It’s a frustrating situation for everyone. My two cents.

At this point, Chinese-speaking gamers will have to hope that the modder returns and updates his mod to support the latest version of the game.