Popular indie dev defends Bethesda defending Starfield on Steam

Strange Scaffold developer Xalavier Nelson Jr. has come to Bethesda’s aid after the gaming titan was flamed for responding to negative reviews on Steam.

Nelson claimed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that this feedback was “becoming the industry standard” and gamers should expect more developers to start responding in the future. This is what he perceives stems from the impact a negative review can have on a title. He believes this is just an example of a big developer attempting to flip negative reviews by interacting with its player base.

This style of feedback is “one of the few mechanisms” game publishers have today, according to the Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator developer on Nov. 28. Nelson, however, didn’t defend what was in the messages. He later acknowledged that Bethesda’s response came from an inauthentic tone. 

Bethesda’s decision to respond to these messages was initially met with backlash from the community. Players thought their responses were “weird” and seemingly attempted to justify what players claimed was a lack of content. Gamers ventured to some of the various planets in Starfield to be met with a baron wasteland, which Bethesda compared to how the astronauts of Apollo 11 felt when they landed on the moon.

With the constant review bombing of titles in the gaming landscape, Nelson might have a point. Titles like Starfield have been inundated with negative reviews after negative reviews. This review-bombing has become an incredibly effective way to get the attention of developers and seems like a cathartic experience for disgruntled gamers. 

Overwatch 2 was one of the more recent examples of review bombing. Its transition to Steam was immediately inundated with thousands of negative reviews, eventually making it the lowest-rated game on the platform. It currently sits on a two out of 10, with an overwhelmingly negative rating on Steam—however, more recent reviews are bucking the review-bombing trend.

The review system in place on Steam allows developers to respond. So, if the system doesn’t change, odds are we’ll be seeing more titles take on this feedback approach.