10 Video Games Delisted For Insane Reasons
7. The Publisher Falsified Steam Reviews - Guardians Of Ember
MMORPG Guardians of Ember was released in Steam Early Access in 2016, and ended up being delisted in February 2018 after Valve discovered that publisher Insel Games had pressured its employees to both buy the game and write a positive review of it on Steam.
A leaked e-mail, allegedly written by the studio's CEO, not-so-subtly implied that employees' jobs were at risk if they didn't play ball and inflate the Steam reviews of not only Guardians of Ember but also another of the studio's MMORPGs, Wild Buster: Heroes of Titan.
Almost a year following the delisting, it was announced that Guardians of Ember was being resurrected as a free-to-play title after being acquired by another publisher, Gameforge.
The relaunch didn't last long, though, as in February 2020 the game was shut down for good, seemingly unable to escape the shadow of all that poor PR.