Starsand Island devs ask fans to stop AI-generated Steam reviews

Starsand Island, a cozy farming sim from developer and publisher Seed Sparkle Lab, released in Early Access on February 11 and has had a rocky start. Kickstarter backers reported not receiving their release codes, the Xbox Series version was reportedly a mess, its $20 cosmetic DLC upset crowdfunding backers, and the “virtual goods” clause in its EULA raised some eyebrows.

Those issues were quickly overshadowed by a wave of seemingly suspicious Steam reviews posted at launch. Many came from accounts with less than an hour of total playtime and no other reviews on their profiles. Threads on Reddit and the Steam discussion board discussed these reviews, and dozens have since disappeared from the game's Steam page.

Seed Spark Lab published a community update titled “Announcement Regarding Artificial Comments” on the game's Steam page and its official Discord.

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