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Warning: 0 A.D. on Steam is not from the actual developers

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Mitsukuni

It's on Wildfire Games' Twitter

IMPORTANT: The person who released the game on steam today is charging 8€ for it. Please do not buy it. The game is free and always will be. It might contain viruses and other malware.

0 A.D. is a free and open source game and you can download it from their website: https://play0ad.com/

On Steam however, the person who uploaded it charges $10 which is a scam and it's possible that it contains malware. It would be nice if you report it to Valve by using the flag button on the Steam page.

Edit: It seems Valve already had taken action since the Steam page is removed.

1 year ago*

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24 Comments
Lugum

That takes some guts.

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

Yeah, I wonder if they get some penalty or enforcement because of this, there are at least 2 crimes there I think.

1 year ago
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adam1224

I haven't heard of that game, thanks for linking the true website, so I won't only remember it as "the fake game on Steam" :)

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

My pleasure! It might not be fake but the game is still in alpha state and should be at least an early access title (if it was real).

And I bet, this is not the only fake game on Steam. :)

1 year ago
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NazaSekh

Looks like the Steam page was taken down already.

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

Nice to hear, must be happened in the last 10 minutes. That was quicker than I expected.

1 year ago
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NazaSekh

Yes. :) Volvo's people were quick to react for once.

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

Thinking about Valve Time, this was a quantum response. :P

1 year ago
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simrafael

Maybe the game is already being removed because the page is not accessible anymore.

I played this game ages ago and it was very promising, it might be the time to return and see the progress.

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

Yes it seems be to be removed.

Same I played it years ago too, maybe a decade. It has Age of Mythology aesthetics and Age of Empires III camera style. The gameplay was also quite enjoyful. I hope we see the final release some day.

1 year ago
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brsichetti

It is a dick move for sure, but it is not necessarily illegal. It seems that the game is licensed under GPL and as far as I know you can sell GPL softwares as long as you follows some rules: can't change the licensing, it have to stay open source, can't claim that you are the developer etc.

As I see in the Steam Page they (Public Games Distribution) follows these rules. Maybe there is something in the Steam TOS that preventing them to do this, but GPL allows it.

Fun fact: Red Hat does the same with Linux (but of course they provide a lot more than just the software in their distribution).

That is what I think, but I am not a lawyer, so it could be wrong.

1 year ago*
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Mitsukuni

Yes, it can be redistributed according to GPL however this action here includes impersonation and unjustified earning (not sure about the English terms).

1 year ago
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brsichetti

Impersonation maybe, but why unjustified earning? Everbody can sell a GPL software, if there is somebody wants to buy it from them.

I think the Steam TOS does not allows this kind of practice, so maybe that is why they remove the page.

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

Technically they can sell it but those two are connected in my opinion (I'm not a lawyer either). It's an earning over impersonation hence unjustified.

But yeah, it's most likely against Steam TOS anyway.

1 year ago
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brsichetti

Anyway, I'm glad that the Valve responds this quick.

Maybe the real developers can create an Early Access project on Steam. It would help to spread the news about the game which looks really promising.

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

That was actually pretty quick.

It seems they're considering this but it's in development for 20 years and the developers still see it in alpha state. Not sure if Steam has a time limit for early access titles but as I understand they at least want to be able to predict an approximate release date. But I agree that it would be much faster than taking donations.

And yeah, it definitely looks promising.

Edit: Also according to their Twitter account, they will create a developer page on Steam just in case so this won't happen again.

1 year ago
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steveywonder75

Cheers for the heads up on this M!

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

No problem! <3

1 year ago
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Kappaking

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2158440/0_AD_Empires_Ascendant/

💀🔫(｢･Θ･ ))Zap!Zap!Zap!Deleted( ｢･Θ･)🔎

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

Yeah, it was pretty quick. :)

1 year ago
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amusedmonkey

Thanks for the warning (and the link). This game looks to be to my taste, I'll be keeping an eye on it.

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

You're welcome! It's a well-crafted RTS game, I hope it reaches the final release sooner than I expected (It's been in alpha stage since the first time I learned about it).

1 year ago
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Sh4dowKill

Publisher: Public Games Distribution
kek

1 year ago
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Mitsukuni

It's almost like they were trolling.

1 year ago
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Closed 6 months ago by Mitsukuni.