The War Z is arguably one of the most controversial games on the internet at the moment and the controversy continues to grow following an official statement from Valve. In a surprise move earlier this week the head of development at The War Z, Sergey Titov, announced that the “Foundation Release” was ready and that the game would soon be available on Steam.
Within 24 hours the game was made available via Valve’s digital distribution service but all was not well for this post apocalyptic MMORPG. Players exploded on both the official forums and Steam Discussions page as the features highlighted on the Steam Store page included aspects of the game that had yet to be implemented, in effect they were selling lies. Players were told that the servers could support 100 players and that Hardcore Mode was readily available, both of which were untrue at the time of print. However, in the following 24 hours Hammerpoint Interactive hastily added these features without any concern for the current player base or the affect the changes would have.
Petitions appeared almost instantly with droves of players calling for the head of Sergey Titov and various members of the moderator team. Hundreds of posts were made, locked and deleted on the official forums, with some players even getting banned from the Steam Discussion area.
It appears the voice of the player base was heard as Valve have now officially removed The War Z from Steam and issued the following statement from Doug Lombardi:
From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site
What made matters worse was an interview between GameSpy and Sergey Titov, in which he basically blamed the player base for misinterpreting the information on the Steam Sale page.
You can read more about the questionable history surrounding The War Z in our Critical Hit article.