Moon Studios is done dealing with ‘fans’ who are hurting their game studio’s ability to make games.
As reported by Windows Central, Moon Studios’ CEO Thomas Mahler made this long, but compelling, post on the Discord for their latest game, No Rest For The Wicked:
I think people think I’m joking when I’m asking for positive reviews cause in peoples minds there’s always some big publisher in the background who’ll cover costs…
Folks, if you’re writing here and are enjoying Wicked and are excited for future updates, but haven’t left a positive review, it’s entirely possible that we won’t be around in a couple of months to do anything anymore simply because we got review bombed which leads to people not buying the game. Which means we’re not making any money and will have to shut down.
I wouldn’t ask if our business wouldn’t be dependent on it. I also never write reviews on anything, but if you want to see us actually finish Wicked, it’s detrimental that we get that review score back up.
Not sure people understand that they participate in potentially killing the studio they want to see succeed by leaving their negative reviews. I get that some people think that’s the only way to reach out and get their voices heard, but even companies like [Grinding Gear Games] won’t be able to stomach that review score forever.
We had to take enormous risks to buy the publishing rights back, we’ve got a few months left in the oven – If we don’t sell more copies cause people review bomb us, you might just cause our death by leaving that negative review that you posted because you want us to listen to feedback which we do anyway. I’m reading every single fucking feedback that’s being posted either way.
For those who don’t remember, No Rest For The Wicked was originally published by Take-Two Interactive, under their indie game publishing label, Private Division. After Take-Two announced they would sell Private Division, they still kept the rights to the game until Moon Studios bought the rights back.
So, we can verify some of his claims about the studio and their game. Buying the rights to the game back definitely opened Moon Studios up to huge financial risks. It may indicate that they’re doubling down on No Rest For The Wicked, and it’s definitely something they’re proud of. But they definitely had to make figurative and real calculations with these decisions.
Mahler’s statement led to some misunderstanding and speculation that Moon Studios was already going out of business. He clarified on Twitter that his complaint was really about the harmful effects of negative reviews on Steam. In Mahler’s words:
…no, we’re not in immediate financial danger—but from time to time, I think I’m allowed to speak up about issues within our industry I personally find unbecoming.
Truth be told, even Grinding Gear Games and Moon Studios have enough fame/notoriety that they could rally fans to reverse the trend of negative Steam reviews. Developers and studios who aren’t known at all are even more vulnerable to review bombing. If gamers have complaints about the game, they can share feedback to the developer directly. While there’s room to argue that there are valid scenarios to give games negative reviews, gamers should be more careful about weaponizing review bombing in general. After all, this isn’t just about driving smaller studios out of business. It’s also created this situation where big game studios don’t even pay attention to user reviews anymore.
