Indie Dev Threatens Gabe Newell, Has Game Removed From Steam

[DeViLzzz]

Ok there had to be some people that paid for this early access game which actually was now to be a final product and I hope Steam and the maker of this game can come up with something that works for the customers that own this game.  Again when it was taken down it was a final product so Steam and this Indie developer have some work to do still.

[Redheadsrule13]

Idiot. It's fine to be angry, but throwing death threats around? Not a smart move in the slightest. And it's not like he's getting completely screwed, his game was being featured on the front page, so what if it was misrepresented, that can be fixed. 
I respect that Valve gave a straight up 'fuck you' after that. Glad to see someone still has the balls to just shut down someone being an asshole.

[SpaghettiCarbonara]

Why would anyone want to kill Gabe? Everyone I've ever known only ever wants to hug that handsome man.

[shiftberry]

See what money does to people... Gosh!

[frostin1990]

 

"We have removed the game's sales page and ceased relations with the developer after he threatened to kill one of our employers"

 

FIXED! 

[The_Strict_Nein]

If you were in a professional business, and your distributer made a minor shipping error, such as putting the wrong product label on the box, you'd politely ask them to fix it and maybe ask for some compensation.

You don't flip out, start shouting at them, then threaten to kill them. Obviously they'll want nothing to do with you and warn others about working with you.

Don't see how this is any different.

[Octagoncow]

I understand why they would be upset, but sending a death threat probably wasn't the right course of action.

[Scionyde]

Good. Even if he wasn't serious, it's still highly unprofessional.

 

#gamergate has gone TOO FAR 

 

Wuh? I really hope you're being facetious.

[rentaspoon]

Has anyone brought this game? no? One less crappy game on steam

[Notional]

Incompetent of Valve, unprofessional of the dev. No one is a winner here, but everyone are losers, including the consumer. This is why we need alternatives like GOG, Uplay and Origin. Steam is not amazing anymore, and is becoming a monster, that makes or breaks companies.

[dalekphalm]

he should of considered the "monopoly" valve had before sending death threats to a valve employee, especially since it is GabeN. 

 

if he had a problem with valve misrepresenting his game then privately talk to valve about instead of going on twitter and ranting about it like child.

 

There is a saying my professor once told my class. "You may have the freedom of speech but that does not give you the freedom from the consequences"

 

I don't think I've ever seen such wisdom on this forum before. Damn straight.

 

This guy took a minor issue (a mistake regarding EarlyAccess), and turned it into a shit show. He could have talked to valve and solved the issue within a couple hours most likely. Even a simple public tweet to Vavle saying "Oh looks like my game is accidentally still listed as early access! But it's actually been released!" would have sufficed.

 

Now, instead, he looks like a little whiny cry baby bitch who can't deal with problems when things go wrong. So Valve made a mistake! Boo fucking hoo. You go acting like a little asshat, and you're surprised when Valve pulls your game down after a DEATH THREAT?!?!?! He got off easy if you ask me. Death Threats are no joke. People on reddit and internet forums might go "derpherp lol haha death threats r so funneh", but it's not funny to the person getting the threat.

 

tl;dr

What a fucking moron dev.

[dalekphalm]

Ok there had to be some people that paid for this early access game which actually was now to be a final product and I hope Steam and the maker of this game can come up with something that works for the customers that own this game.  Again when it was taken down it was a final product so Steam and this Indie developer have some work to do still.

I assume that anyone who already bought the game will get to keep it, and/or they'll be given full refunds.

 

I actually kinda doubt that Valve would remove the game from peoples libraries that already bought it. Same as when EA pulled a bunch of their games off Steam way back when Origin was first released. Anyone who had already bought those games, got to keep them in their libraries.

[dalekphalm]

Sorry for late thread : Original post : http://linustechtips...ved-from-steam/

 

 

 

so yeah. what do you think about this ? is it a good idea to remove the game completely ? even after all the work that has gone into it ? 

 

 

 

If you're a developer selling a game on Steam, it's probably not the best idea in the world to tweet a death threat to the guy who owns Steam.

That's what indie developer Mike Maulbeck did earlier today, though, and it's now something he probably regrets.

The day should have started off pretty well! Maulbeck's game, Paranautical Activity, was included as part of a Steam store section highlighting Halloween-themed games.

Only, it was listed as an Early Access title, not a final product (the game had been only recently completed). That mistake sent Maulbeck into a Twitter tirade

 

 

 

 

Full story here : http://kotaku.com/indie-dev-threatens-gabe-newell-has-game-removed-from-1648678869?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

I don't think Valve went too far at all.

 

#gamergate has gone TOO FAR 

wat.... This literally has nothing to do with #gamergate in the slightest. Do you know what #gamergate is about? Spoiler alert: Not a jackass dev running his mouth off and then being pissed when he has to deal with the consequences.

 

This got nothing to do with #gamergate. The developer himself went on mad twitter escapade and suffered the consequences of his actions for it. 

 

Unless you're being sarcastic.

^ QFT

 

Incompetent of Valve, unprofessional of the dev. No one is a winner here, but everyone are losers, including the consumer. This is why we need alternatives like GOG, Uplay and Origin. Steam is not amazing anymore, and is becoming a monster, that makes or breaks companies.

Incompetent of Valve? Are you serious right now? Can you please back that up with even a slight amount of evidence or logic? Do you know how the business world works? If some independent grocery store did this to a large multi-national distributor, they would probably do the same damn thing.

 

Valve was 100% justified. I actually applaud their swift action and response to this bullshit. We're seeing death threats thrown around more and more casually online these days - and it's not okay in the slightest. Punishment needs to be set. Freedom of speech means the dev can say any damn well thing he pleases. But that does not protect him from the consequences or responsibility of his actions.

[Trik'Stari]

Well this guy wins a darwin award.

[Notional]

Incompetent of Valve? Are you serious right now? Can you please back that up with even a slight amount of evidence or logic? Do you know how the business world works? If some independent grocery store did this to a large multi-national distributor, they would probably do the same damn thing.

 

Valve was 100% justified. I actually applaud their swift action and response to this bullshit. We're seeing death threats thrown around more and more casually online these days - and it's not okay in the slightest. Punishment needs to be set. Freedom of speech means the dev can say any damn well thing he pleases. But that does not protect him from the consequences or responsibility of his actions.

 

It was incompetent of Valve, to market a game as early access, when it was a final release. It was incompetent of Valve to deal so poorly with this dev afterwards. Like I said, he was unprofessional (and quite dumb), but Valve could have dealt with this in a much more competent way.

 

Death threats online are unacceptable, but that is the entire point: Valve should have dealt with this problem in a competent way, before it ever got that far. Now whether it was possible for Valve to prevent this dev from having a meltdown, is a different matter, which is relevant, but also speculative. I understand Valve, but they are not innocent of fault here.

 

Companies should not "punish" any customer or business link. This is not a superhero cartoon.

[ItsComrade]

The dev was always a pretty big dick. I'm not surprised. Some people never grow up.

[killtothis]

I assume that anyone who already bought the game will get to keep it, and/or they'll be given full refunds.

 

I actually kinda doubt that Valve would remove the game from peoples libraries that already bought it. Same as when EA pulled a bunch of their games off Steam way back when Origin was first released. Anyone who had already bought those games, got to keep them in their libraries.

 

Correct, same as any delisted game (Deadpool/EA titles you mentioned) you will retain the copy in your library but it will no longer receive updates from the developer through Steam. I've just checked and my copy is still there. 

 

EDIT: Not saying I agree with how the guy voiced his frustration, I definitely can't co-sign someone threatening to kill someone on Twitter, but cut the guy a bit of slack. We've all dealt with Steam;/Valve as consumers and I'd hope to think we've all had positive experiences, that's not to say a relationship from the other angle (indie dev) is as fruitful. I'm not saying Valve are in the wrong, I'm not saying he's in the right, Just that he's obviously been working for a while on a product and had certain expectations which obviously didn't materialise in relation to how he expected the game to leave Early Access. In all likelihood he's closed a lot of doors in the business and potentially ruined a career for him (and others in his team) he doesn't need to be called names on top. 

[dalekphalm]

It was incompetent of Valve, to market a game as early access, when it was a final release. It was incompetent of Valve to deal so poorly with this dev afterwards. Like I said, he was unprofessional (and quite dumb), but Valve could have dealt with this in a much more competent way.

 

Death threats online are unacceptable, but that is the entire point: Valve should have dealt with this problem in a competent way, before it ever got that far. Now whether it was possible for Valve to prevent this dev from having a meltdown, is a different matter, which is relevant, but also speculative. I understand Valve, but they are not innocent of fault here.

 

Companies should not "punish" any customer or business link. This is not a superhero cartoon.

Yes. Yes they should, if that business or customer is doing something wrong.

 

Same reason you get banned by VAT if you cheat. You did something wrong, now you must face the consequences.

 

I will agree that valve made a mistake with listing the game as Early Access when it should have been listed as a full release. But considering the game just came out of early access what - yesterday? - I would not say it was incompetence. It was a simple human error. One person out of how many hundreds of Valve employees? One mistake that - in the grand scheme of things - means absolutely nothing? Paranautical Activity - while a cute fun indie game - was never going to be a huge multi million dollar success anyway.

 

Now, that doesn't give Valve the right to treat their indie Dev's like shit simply because they don't bring in a lot of money to Valve - but I strongly believe Valve did 100% the correct thing.

 

Mistakes happen - welcome to the real world. Mistakes in business happen - you just have to deal with it. Valve COULD have handled this quite smoothly... if the Dev gave them the chance and informed them about the mistake. But he chose to have a temper tantrum and "say things he didn't mean". Well too bad for him. He played his cards and he lost.

 

I fully support Valve removing their game because the dev made death threats. Only way to treat those kinds of actions is absolute and instant reaction, with zero tolerance.

 

Was he joking? Probably. Was the threat not realistic? Most likely. Does that matter in the slightest? Nope.

[ObeseWalrus]

[Notional]

Yes. Yes they should, if that business or customer is doing something wrong.

 

Same reason you get banned by VAT if you cheat. You did something wrong, now you must face the consequences.

 

Hardly a fair comparison. Cheating ruins gameplay for other customers and is a violation of the terms of agreement. That has little to do with b2b transactions and collaaborations.

 

I will agree that valve made a mistake with listing the game as Early Access when it should have been listed as a full release. But considering the game just came out of early access what - yesterday? - I would not say it was incompetence. It was a simple human error. One person out of how many hundreds of Valve employees? One mistake that - in the grand scheme of things - means absolutely nothing? Paranautical Activity - while a cute fun indie game - was never going to be a huge multi million dollar success anyway.

 

Now, that doesn't give Valve the right to treat their indie Dev's like shit simply because they don't bring in a lot of money to Valve - but I strongly believe Valve did 100% the correct thing.

 

Mistakes happen - welcome to the real world. Mistakes in business happen - you just have to deal with it. Valve COULD have handled this quite smoothly... if the Dev gave them the chance and informed them about the mistake. But he chose to have a temper tantrum and "say things he didn't mean". Well too bad for him. He played his cards and he lost.

 

(...) but developer Mike Maulbeck noticed that his game was being advertised as Early Access, despite the game getting a full release two weeks previously. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2014/10/21/paranautical-activity-pulled-from-steam/1

 

That is incompetent to say the least. Human errors do occur, like venting frustration on twitter.

 

After allegedly trying to resolve the issue via email with Valve, Maulbeck turned to Twitter to swear about the situation, declare Steam as incompetent and ultimately state ’I am going to kill Gabe Newell. He’s going to die.’

Valve could have prevented this, and handle it in a professional way. They did not. The result is an escalation, that could land this developer in prison, and has already pretty much cost this dev his livelyhood.

 

Valve is not some pro consumer company. It is big business with a yearly revenue of hundreds of millions, and a net worth of several billions. They have lousy customer service, and do not seem to be interested in consumer rights. They own your account and can shut it down as it suits them. They deny to refund a game, and you use a bank charge back, they will shut down your account and you will lose all your games. Don't be too hasty in defending a huge company like Valve. They are no different than Ubisoft or EA. People just have double standards and portray hipocrisy when it comes to Valve.

 

I won't defend a death threat, but you have to be rational about this and see it from all sides.

[nokturrduk84]

Some people doesn't have any respect, patience & politeness towards others. He deserved, that his game has been removed.

[dalekphalm]

Hardly a fair comparison. Cheating ruins gameplay for other customers and is a violation of the terms of agreement. That has little to do with b2b transactions and collaaborations.

 

 

 

That is incompetent to say the least. Human errors do occur, like venting frustration on twitter.

 

Valve could have prevented this, and handle it in a professional way. They did not. The result is an escalation, that could land this developer in prison, and has already pretty much cost this dev his livelyhood.

 

Valve is not some pro consumer company. It is big business with a yearly revenue of hundreds of millions, and a net worth of several billions. They have lousy customer service, and do not seem to be interested in consumer rights. They own your account and can shut it down as it suits them. They deny to refund a game, and you use a bank charge back, they will shut down your account and you will lose all your games. Don't be too hasty in defending a huge company like Valve. They are no different than Ubisoft or EA. People just have double standards and portray hipocrisy when it comes to Valve.

 

I won't defend a death threat, but you have to be rational about this and see it from all sides.

Oh I understand that it was a human error that caused it. But I don't believe that he "tried to resolve the issues via email". Based on his tweets, even his first tweet when he found out that it was listed wrong, he was already furious. Obviously without seeing the emails, we'll never know for sure, but I suspect that he simply didn't give Valve enough time to fix the error, or he let his mouth run in the email.

 

I've been vocal about bad practices with Valve before. I fully understand that they're in it for money. They're a business. They aren't (necessarily) pro consumer. And I've called them out before when they've fucked up. But I still fully support them taking the game down due to his actions.

 

Everyone who bought the game still has it, so they aren't harming any of their customers. The dev still has alternative avenues for selling his game. He can sell direct from his website, or try to be picked up by GOG or Humble Bundle. The game got massive marketing via greenlight and steam, and even now this is still "marketing" the game in some manner (Some say that for a product, any publicity is good publicity).

 

Although I suspect that due to his public actions and his tweets, he'll never get another deal with a Publisher (And I suspect that would've been the case even had Steam NOT removed the game). Seriously this guy had a nuclear meltdown on twitter.

[Zyphera]

Sweet and miserable feeling. It's hard to laugh this is just so miserable.

[Humbug]

Ok there had to be some people that paid for this early access game which actually was now to be a final product and I hope Steam and the maker of this game can come up with something that works for the customers that own this game.  Again when it was taken down it was a final product so Steam and this Indie developer have some work to do still.

Apparently it's still downloadable, and playable for people who already bought it.

 

 

[Humbug]

Don't be too hasty in defending a huge company like Valve. They are no different than Ubisoft or EA.

Yes and No. There are two sides to this.

 

They are a private company with no marketing department, all the key decision makers are developers and gamers themselves. There are no shareholders who are out of touch with the gaming community making investments and forcing decisions. In that way they are different to Ubisoft and EA.

 

But as you say Valve likes to make money, so they will try to think of ways to maximize profit. In that way they are like Ubisoft and EA. They are a big corporation and their employees want to get richer.