When a game reaches mainstream success, you can bet there will be cheap attempts to cash in on it. Helldivers 2 is the most recent example of this trend, with multiple groups running discount scams using the game’s name, promotional material, and other details.
Helldivers 2 took the gaming world by storm in February, peaking at over 450,000 players on Steam alone despite dealing with constant server issues for weeks after launch. Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony have the game in working order now as it continues to spread democracy across the stars, but the PC version has a new battle to fight.
As pointed out on the Helldivers Reddit and other gaming communities, two groups are impersonating the official Helldivers 2 Steam page and running a discount scam. This was done by an admin of other live Steam products going in and changing relevant information on the page to be identical to Helldivers 2, including game name, publisher, developer, description, and promo material.
The first and biggest offender is a game previously called Figurality published and developed by Bside Studio that altered its Steam page to look nearly identical to Helldivers 2—outside of the number of reviews, 36 compared to over 158,000 on the actual game. These changes led to many players not noticing anything was wrong and thinking that Helldivers 2 was actually being sold at a 75 percent discount, down from $49.99 to $12.49, which is an instant red flag since the game launched less than a month ago and is originally listed at $39.99.
Despite the fairly obvious nature of the scam, the first fake game sat at the top of the Steam Specials page over titles like Deep Rock Galactic, Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter 6, and another Sony title, Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition. The second fake had a more reasonable discount and got the initial pricing right but has not seen the same success tricking players who might have been looking to grab Helldivers 2 on the dip.
Now that the Helldivers 2 community is aware of the scams, players are warning against them and telling any impacted buyers to immediately refund. There is also an active call for all democracy lovers to report the offending game pages to ensure Valve sees and stops the sellers.
“This is a pathetic attempt by the automaton menace to fund their war effort and misdirect our recruits. It is the obligation of every man, woman, and child over the age of 7 to report this to the Ministry of Truth,” Reddit user Mr_EP1C said.
The team at Arrowhead is also aware of the fakes, thanking players on the game’s official Discord server for reaching out to notify them of the issue and noting that their legal department is on the case and they “hope Valve will remove the products as soon as possible.” More information will be shared once an update is available.
As a reminder, Steam allows you to refund games purchased within the last 14 days as long as you have less than two hours of playtime with them.
Published: Mar 1, 2024 03:18 am