Steam Rating Recovery
Dead by Daylight has returned to 'Mostly Positive' recent reviews on Steam after Valve labeled a chunk of ratings surrounding the recent TheBurntPeanut backlash as 'off-topic.'
Developer Behaviour Interactive's recent collaboration with the streamer TheBurntPeanut resulted in a wave of negative user feedback. Following the controversy, the game experienced a significant decline in its Steam favorability ratings throughout the week.
The Steam page now displays an asterisk clarifying that reviews between November 1 and November 6 have been excluded from the score. Valve stated that this period was marked for containing an abnormal set of reviews deemed unrelated to the actual quality or enjoyment of the product.
Community Response
While the default score has improved, users retain the option to manually unmark these reviews to view the 'Mixed' rating. Despite the technical adjustment to the score, significant portions of the player base continue to express dissatisfaction with the developer's recent actions on social media.
Some players have criticized the studio's customer service and reputation, arguing that the negative feedback was a justified reaction to the situation.
Critics of Valve's intervention have argued that the negative reviews were legitimate expressions of player sentiment rather than an inauthentic campaign.
Valve's Review Policy
The situation has highlighted questions regarding Valve's criteria for labeling reviews as off-topic. The company previously outlined its process in 2019, aiming to filter out anomalous activity that does not reflect the typical player experience.
Valve utilizes automated tools to identify anomalous review patterns in real-time. Once flagged, a team at Valve investigates the activity to determine if it meets the criteria for an off-topic classification.
If investigators confirm the activity is off-topic, the specific time period is marked, and the developer is notified. The exact methodology used by the platform to identify these patterns remains proprietary.
Behaviour Interactive stated it is not at liberty to discuss specific platform review processes, pointing instead to its previous public statements regarding the incident.
The studio has confirmed it removed gifted content from TheBurntPeanut's account and is taking internal action to address how the situation occurred.
Separately, the studio recently announced that the Child's Play Killer Chucky would be removed from sale, though it noted that licensed characters may have the potential to return in the future.
