Valve didn’t leave the obviously fake products up for long, as they are no longer available on their platform.

Two indie titles tried to pass themselves off as Helldivers 2. One for $12.5, the other for $20. However, according to SteamDB, both were tricky as they were existing games masquerading as the popular Arrowhead product. The games’ names, descriptions, and images were changed, and even the names of the developer and publisher were rewritten to make everything look like Helldivers 2. The games were originally called Figurality by SoleOnBoard Studio and Do Not Smile by Whitehole Games. Both were released on November 4th and both were redesigned at the same time.

It was a thought-provoking situation, because the fact that they were able to rewrite the publisher’s name so that not only was the name PlayStation PC LLC, but the name itself actually carried a link to PlayStation PC products, is not a very safe distraction, and raises the question of why some absent-minded individuals could do this. Only the number of reviews (only 13) could be noticeable. But the sad thing is that Helldivers 2 is not the only game like this.

Palworld was imitated, and Last Epoch and Escape from Tarkov also got the same fake game. And these were priced at or near full price (£39/49). Whitehole Games, which renamed itself Glamurny in November and then Fest Studios in March, was behind the fake Last Epoch, but also created the fake Escape from Tarkov site, which no longer links to Steam (it just redirects to the main site). SoleOnBoard has also gone by several names, as it has also appeared on Valve as albobs and Bside Studio. Behind this name is not only Helldivers 2, but also a Palworld imitation.

Let’s hope Valve bans these developers (?) from Steam.

Source: VGC, PCGamer