Some time ago, on April 28, Steam launched a game called “Assassin’s Creed: Illusion”, which is Ubisoft’s annual masterpiece.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a counterfeit game, but the price of $33.99 is not cheap, which still makes some players believe it.
These players who have been taken advantage of can’t even find a single .exe file after purchasing the download. The entire game package does not exceed 100MB.
Besides, the cover of this game is generated by AI with a Hollywood actor Josh Duhamel.
Originally, the release time of “Assassin’s Creed: Phantasm” has been delayed, and Ubisoft’s situation is even worse. According to the French game magazine Jeux Video, the release schedule of the new Assassin’s Creed was affected by this fake game, and the protagonist of the new work was also adjusted.
As a PC game store that has been in operation for 20 years, Steam has successfully launched countless low-cost games because of Steam’s loose audit policy, and even many games have made great contributions and become popular all over the world.
It’s easy to become a developer on Steam. The threshold is just a $100 deposit. As we all know, many people go to Steam to buy games, sometimes just to have a feeling of “owning”, especially when they take the opportunity to buy a dozen or twenty games when they are discounted, they may not have time to actually play them.
So some extremely lazy “developers” will sell games that don’t even have .exe. This is the so-called “steam shell game”.
When you become a Steam developer, you can apply for game KEYs for your own “games”. These KEYs are hoarded and packed into third-party sales gift packages at a very low price. Anyway, a considerable number of players will not play after buying them, so You won’t find yourself buying a loneliness at all.
“Shadow: Treachery cannot be tolerated” is a typical example. After a round of crowdfunding, it is sold on the shelves. There are only pictures and display videos in the whole process. After downloading, it is an empty shell.
In order to increase the player’s activity and willingness to spend, the Steam platform will recommend some related or similar games based on the player’s preferences and behavior.
However, this recommendation mechanism is also used by some shell game developers, who deliberately imitate the names, icons, descriptions, etc. of some well-known or popular games to attract players’ attention and clicks. And once players buy these shell games, it is very difficult for them to refund or complain.
That’s why there is a 2-hour refund policy.
In fact, it is not limited to Steam. For example, on mobile phones, you can often download many counterfeit game apps, but in most cases, counterfeit games can at least be played, and some works that imitate or plagiarize other well-known games may also appear. A place to be remembered.
Now these game “developers” don’t install it at all, and they don’t even bother to make an executable file for you. The bet is that you don’t touch it at all after paying, so that you will be taken advantage of in vain after 2 hours.
Therefore, after buying the game, it is best to download and install it within the time limit, otherwise, never open it, because as long as you don’t open it, the copycat game will always be real, so you can maintain the “forever owned” This feeling.