Most Controversial Steam Features Ever

Summary

Steam's features often lead to unintended consequences or backlash.
Paid mods, Greenlight, and refunds have had mixed success on the platform.
Trading, Early Access, and discovery prioritize popularity over consumer interests.

Steam has remained the best place to play games on PC for well over a decade. In that time, despite its undeniable success, Steam has gone through several changes and implemented plenty of features that didn't land as intended or led to unforeseen consequences that forced them to be altered drastically or removed entirely.

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By Dominik Bošnjak

From community exploits to platform-wide damage, many new features have had large impacts on the way players engage with games on the Steam platform, with some even breaking existing systems in completely unexpected ways. Despite the problems, Steam continues to adapt to the community's needs and constantly pushes for innovation, even if it means making a few mistakes along the way.

Paid Mods In The Steam Workshop

Monetization That Quickly Backfired

Mods have been around for almost as long as games themselves, and the community making them has always been driven by passion and a love for gaming, rather than being motivated by money. This all changed when Valve decided to roll out a new system where creators could charge players for mods to drum up more financial support, but it immediately drew backlash the second it launched.

Initially tested with just Skyrim, many fans argued that it commodified a system that was always free and raised concerns regarding quality control and copyright. The system was removed within days, and although the idea of supporting modding creators was good in theory, the reality was an unnecessary experiment that few players wanted in the first place.

The Greenlight System

Great In Theory, But Easily Abused

Steam Greenlight launched in 2012, aiming to democratize the game publishing process on the platform by allowing players to vote on titles that they thought deserved a place on Steam's storefront. It began as a way of introducing more indie game titles into the space, but quickly became a breeding ground for scams and low-quality projects that could easily sneak onto the platform.

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By James Ratcliff

It was also vulnerable to vote manipulation and lacked any meaningful creation tools, resulting in a diluted marketplace. The system has since been replaced by Steam Direct, a more streamlined process that is selective but fair, and still gives smaller creators an opportunity to have their game on the platform, without requiring 1000s of votes from the community.

Trading Cards/In-Game Item Drops

Extra Incentives With Plenty Of Room For Exploitation

In-game items and inventory drops are unique systems that were added to Steam as a way to increase engagement and allow players to trade in-game items for real-world money. The problem here stems from the ability to exploit the system, with some games being released with the sole intention of generating item drops to be sold for a profit.

There are other ongoing issues, like bots being used to farm items in a low-effort way, and the market itself is entirely community-driven, meaning that item prices can fluctuate and spike based on player perception alone. The systems remain today as an interesting look into the lengths people will go to generate money and how players can drive entire economies without any intervention.

User Reviews

Community Perception Turned Into A Weapon

Reviews are an important part of any video game's life cycle. Good reviews can drive more players to the product, and bad ones can help the game improve in the long term. In the past, these reviews were often led by journalists and far more sparse, but with the addition of user reviews that are displayed on a game's Steam page, now anyone can be a reviewer.

This addition led to a shift in how players perceive certain games, as many simply ignore titles that lack a positive review percentage, leaving plenty of great games untouched. More recently, though, they have been weaponized, with mass negative review bombs occurring on many AAA titles as a way of forcing change, which has shifted many games from positive to negative overnight.

Game Refunds

Harming The Little Guy

Refunds are a crucial part of any product sale, as if the consumer isn't satisfied or their product is faulty, then they should be entitled to a refund. The same can be said for games, as sometimes a game just isn't enjoyable or doesn't run well, so being able to return it, assuming it is within the window laid out in the terms, sounds great for the customer.

The trouble is that there are quite a few games on Steam that can be beaten within the two-hour window, which has led to many players exploiting the system by playing the game quickly and refunding it for full price. This means that the developer loses out on that sale, resulting in a large loss of revenue thanks to an overly lenient system that favors the consumer.

Trade Reversal

Changing The World Of Trading Forever

Trading on Steam has gone through many different iterations since its release. With trade locks and Steam Guard, exchanging items has become increasingly difficult. However, things have just gotten a lot trickier thanks to the new trade reversal system that allows players to revert a trade made within seven days, without needing to contact or communicate with the other player involved in the transaction.

This system was implemented as a way of combating scammers, but it has huge implications on the third-party market and in situations where players exchange items for real-world currency. New scams can arise where a player trades an item, receives the money, then reverses the trade, keeping both in the process. It does lock the player out of trading for a month, but only time will tell if the system has more positives or negatives in the long term.

Early Access

No Guarantee Of Quality

In a similar way to the Greenlight system, Steam Early Access is a way for developers to make their game known on the platform, gaining support through testing and purchases, whilst still giving them time to finish the rest of the game and polish any bugs or issues. The trouble is, there's no built-in timeframe or required launch date, meaning many games can remain in Early Access for years, or even forever.

The reason it is particularly problematic is that many players will simply ignore a title that they deem unfinished, which slows down the development time even further. If they do decide to pick a game up in an unfinished state, then they may be left waiting for a long time for the game to be fully updated, with some leaving poor reviews well before the game is even ready.

Discovery Queue

Pushing Popularity Over Personal Interest

The Discovery Queue on Steam is one of the less harmful features that has been added to Steam, acting as a way for players to find new games that are supposed to be tailored to their interests. The trouble is, it doesn't matter how many games are ignored or wishlisted; the system still prioritizes popular or new titles over ones an individual player might actually enjoy.

It means that players looking for their next favorite game will likely have to dig through a pile of titles that they should never have been shown in the first place, as the algorithm prioritizes showing the biggest names of the moment over more player-tailored options. The reason it's troublesome is that indie or less popular games can often be overshadowed by AAA releases, resulting in fewer eyes on them and fewer sales, even if the player in question would love to play them, given the chance.