11 Bit Studios to stop giving keys to Steam curators amidst reseller controversy

11 Bit Studios has announced it will no longer be giving game keys to Steam curators after a majority were resold.

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, 11 Bit Studios wrote: “Starting today (September 2) we won’t be granting game keys to Steam curators.”

“Based on our and other devs’ experiences, most of the requests come from fake accounts used to gather and resell the keys and the published reviews don’t seem to bring any value for the community anyway,” they added.

Responding to one fan who was seemingly confused by the statement, 11 Bit Studios added: “You’d be surprised at the number of emails we receive with a message more-or-less like this: ‘Hello, this is Curator Dude from the Totally Legit Curator on Steam. I very much love your game and Totally Legit Curator fans are waiting for a review. Please send at least 5 keys!’”

You’d be surprised at the number of emails we receive with a message more-or-less like this:
“Hello, this is Curator Dude from the Totally Legit Curator on Steam. I very much love your game and Totally Legit Curator fans are waiting for a review. Please send at least 5 keys!”

— 11 bit studios (@11bitstudios) September 2, 2022

It comes as earlier this week it was confirmed that Valve had banned several Steam curator groups, after it was alleged that they were owned by a small number of people who were using the system as a means to resell keys.

Sharing the news, 11 Bit Studios wrote: “Apparently, those issues have caught Valve’s attention so hopefully we’ll be able to see some improvements to the curator feature soon”

Earlier this year, 11 Bit Studios confirmed their next project, codenamed Project Vitriol. According to developers, the title is a “deep, morally ambiguous narrative-driven RPG, of a scale and scope not previously undertaken by the publisher”.

Last year, 11 Bit Studios confirmed a sequel to Frostpunk was in development.

In other news, Ukrainian development studio Frogwares has defended a promotion that will allow three people to put personalised messages on artillery shells, which will be fired at Russian forces.