NightCry’s Studios Combat Fake Review Allegations

In an unexpected development for the studios behind Clock Tower spiritual successor, NightCry, it appears that they’re under fire for alleged fake Steam reviews. Apparent allegations have been thrown toward developer Nudemaker and in turn publisher AGM Playism due to a series of positive Steam reviews for NightCry that don’t seem all too genuine.

I learned of this alleged bad-doing through NightCry‘s social media account, as the studios behind the game, including game director Hifumi Kono, are denying they had any involvement in the reviews. Kono stated the following in a tweet, “NudeMaker nor AGM have paid for reviews, nor would we buy reviews of low quality. As an independent action, it makes us uncomfortable.”

NightCry’s official Twitter has said that they’re “actively investigating the matter with NudeMaker to determine what has occurred”.

Some concern has risen about certain Steam reviews. We would just like to say that we have not purchased any reviews for NightCry. 1/2 — NightCry (@Night_Scissors) April 11, 2016

And that we are actively investigating the matter with NudeMaker to determine what has occurred. An update will be forthcoming. — NightCry (@Night_Scissors) April 11, 2016

If one were to look at the reviews for themselves on Steam, they share quite a few things in common. For starters, these reviews all seem to clock in from accounts with a near exact amount of playtime. Each review is merely a sentence or two long that lack proper grammar, and most interestingly, the accounts behind the reviews have each reviewed the same following titles: Red Risk, OutDrive, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Forbidden Planet, Road Madness, Run Rabbit Run and a few others. Here’s a few account examples that fit the pattern: Metalni Radnik, Eustahije Brzic, Japanska buba, and No This Is Patrick.

If NightCry‘s studios are innocent, I suspect someone took it upon themselves to boost up several games in order to prevent their game from being singled out. Im curious as to whether Valve will get involved with this suspect situation.

[NightCry Steam Page]