UPDATE: As of March 15th 2019, Valve has taken stronger steps to handle the issue of review bombing, in that ”review bombs” will no longer affect game scores on the platform. We’re glad to see Valve addressing this issue directly, as for many independent developers who don’t have the pull and the resources to soldier through such an event, a dozen (unjustified) negative reviews can mean the difference between making a living out of making video games and shutting down. This is a big win both for developers and consumers, and we hope that the changes will lead to a fairer and healthier reviewing ecosystem.

Game developers should not have to fear unwarranted and ludicrous amounts of backlash from the inclusion of even the tiniest bit of cont­roversial material in their games. Yet Valve sits idly by as Steam games are suddenly barraged with multiple negative reviews, or “review bombed” for basically any reason that may prompt a group of upset people to attack a game or its developers.

This inaction regarding review bombs hurts the creative freedom of game developers, muddies the waters for gamers looking for a consensus on a game’s quality, and loses money for not only the developers but Valve itself in turn. So why is Valve doing so little to defuse these bombs?