Looks like Valve has been working on how review average scores will be ranked within all video games offered through the Steam service. As it stands right now, Valve has changed the overall review score in which will factor out all product activated keys that were used to leave a review for the select video game.
Valve has left a news post on the official Steam website that goes over some of the updates coming towards the Steam customer review system. One of the biggest aspects that will affect how some video games are ranked in terms of reviews is the free Steam keys received by developers.
According to the post made by Valve, developers are always granted free Steam keys to hand out for a variety of reasons. This could be for media outlets to feature the game to normal giveaways to followers. However, Valve has taken note that these keys are sometimes used in ways that will inflate review scores.
“Steam keys have always been free for developers to give out or sell through other online or retail stores. That isn’t changing. However, it is too easy for these keys to end up being used in ways that artificially inflate review scores.
An analysis of games across Steam shows that at least 160 titles have a substantially greater percentage of positive reviews by users that activated the product with a cd key, compared to customers that purchased the game directly on Steam. There are, of course, legitimate reasons why this could be true for a game: Some games have strong audiences off Steam, and some games have passionate early adopters or Kickstarter backers that are much more invested in the game.
As a result of this, we are making some changes to how review scores are calculated. As of today, the recent and overall review scores we show at the top of a product page will no longer include reviews written by customers that activated the game through a Steam product key.”
With these Steam activated keys no longer being able to affect the overall rank for the video game, we could see some titles receive a drastically different review score with the average only being displayed by gamers who personally purchased a game through Steam.
