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Starsand Island Dev Denies Role in Suspected Steam Review Boost, Urges Unknown Actor to Stop

Strong early user scores contrast with unresolved questions over clusters of look‑alike praise.

Overview

  • Content creator Josh flagged roughly 100 Steam accounts posting near‑identical positive reviews within minutes, prompting broader scrutiny.
  • Reporters found repeating patterns across many profiles, including similar Steam levels, three to five hours of playtime, overlapping recently played games, and awkward feature‑listing prose.
  • Seed Sparkle Lab said it was not responsible, noted some accounts refunded after reviewing, and publicly asked whoever is responsible to stop.
  • The studio removed restrictive user‑agreement clauses, confirmed there is no anti‑cheat, pledged mod support with Steam Workshop after full release, and stated there are no in‑game purchases.
  • The Early Access release holds around 1,700–2,000 reviews with about 91% positive, many suspect reviews remain visible, new suspect activity appears to have slowed, and any platform enforcement is not yet known.