Review bombing has become a common practice in the modern entertainment landscape. Players and audiences use it as a tool to make their voices heard, and in the case of games it can be extremely effective.
Especially on platforms like Steam, where a game’s review rating plays a huge role in how visible it is on the digital storefront.
This year kicked off with a massive back and forth of players review bombing Helldivers 2 because they didn’t like having to link their PSN accounts and then re-correcting those reviews when Arrowhead Games gave in to those demands. And that’s not the last time this year that Helldivers 2 players specifically have used review bombing as a tool to try and stomp out issues they have.
However a new FTC ruling that just went into effect might’ve taken the teeth out of review bombing’s bite. The ruling is specifically attacking fake reviews, meaning it intends to incentivize platforms hosting reviews to distill things down to only real reviews from real people.
Platforms that host fake reviews could face serious fines if found out, so the days of review bombing having any impact could be done. Say if you’re review bombing a game on Steam because of a recent change to their monetization model.
Well, it could be the case now that to avoid fines, Steam decides to remove those negative reviews which only criticize the recent change, and don’t in fact reflect a review of the overall product. Because under this new filing, its possible these reviews fall under “reviews and testimonials…that misrepresent the experience of the person giving it.”
It’ll be interesting to see the impact this ruling has on the games industry.
Source – [FTC via CNET]