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Starsand Island Dev Denies Role in Suspicious Steam Praise, Works With Valve to Remove Fake Reviews

Despite the suspicious posts, the Early Access release has drawn thousands of genuine positive reviews and a five‑figure concurrent peak.

Overview

  • Seed Sparkle Lab says it is cooperating with Valve to identify and remove forged user reviews and reiterates it did not orchestrate the activity.
  • Journalists and community sleuths documented clusters of near‑identical positive reviews from low‑history accounts with short playtimes and similar wording.
  • Two days after launch, the game had roughly 2,151 Steam reviews averaging about 88% positive, with investigators describing the suspect posts as a subset of overall feedback.
  • The studio revised its EULA to drop restrictive language, pledged not to block mods or add anti‑cheat, and plans to open Steam Workshop after full release.
  • A published roadmap targets mod support and basic creator tools in May and multiplayer in June, as the team also works through Kickstarter key distribution and optimization issues.