Rumor: Ubisoft Wants Valve To Disable Steam Player Count API Fuelling SteamDB

[Cpt.Jank]

Steam is highly valued by many gamers, not only for being a fairly inexpensive, easy way to buy and manage games, but also because it provides statistics on player count and play times, via tools like SteamDB, which are a neat way for gamers to see how the community is participating in games before buying them. According to a post on the FandomPulse Substack, however, Ubisoft has taken issue with Valve's player statistics.

The Substack post quotes Ubisoft insiders who claim that the game developer and "other companies" want Valve to disable or restrict the APIs used by tools like SteamDB and Steam Charts as a direct response to the disappointing performance of Star Wars Outlaws. This news also comes ahead of the early 2025 launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which has already caused significant apprehension as a result of game previews. The claims also mention that Ubisoft seeks to control the narrative of its games and potentially present a rosier image to its investors. If Ubisoft has its way, the gaming industry would lose even more transparency, since tools like SteamDB are often used by game journalists to evaluate the popularity and commercial success of games.

"Ubisoft and other companies want to pressure Steam to stop the tracker from giving out info they want to keep to themselves... They want to be able to present findings to investors so they can make it sound good."

It should be noted that, while this sort of behavior would not be surprising from a large corporation in the modern gaming landscape, the claims are also unverified, putting this squarely in rumor territory.

According to SteamDB, Star Wars Outlaws only managed to sell around 45,000 units on the PC platform, and other sources say that it only managed to sell around 1 million copies in its first month, falling well short of the profitability mark for a AAA game.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[theouto]

I do honestly wonder how they plan to pressure valve. No genuinely, what do these game developers plan on doing, not sell their games on steam? As if that has ever worked well for any of them, specially since they all eventually returned to steam, including ubisoft...

 

[Space Lynx]

maybe they could make a good game to get higher numbers...

 

[Onasi]

And I really would like a couple million bucks and a lifetime supply of gummy bears or something.
No, seriously, if this actually has any truth to it - what’s the argument for Valve to actually do so? “We want to cover our fuck ups instead of actually making good products, can you help us with that?” Fuck em, I said it once and I will say it repeatedly - companies releasing bad products should get burned, up to and including going out of business. They shouldn’t be coddled, shouldn’t get government handouts, they should just be allowed to fail if they are unwilling or incapable of actually running themselves and conducting business in a sane manner. Fuck em, fuck MBA assholes running them, fuck investors not understanding games overall, fuck the gamers enabling them, just let the AAA industry fail, crash and burn at this point. I feel like we’d be better off without.

 

[remekra]

Should we take a step back and see what made the old games successfull and try to replicate that while respecting the customer base, gain their trust back and make a lot of money? Naah, let's try to ban player counts so that nobody can tell how our another great product failed and we can keep that charade that it's only haters hating.
When will Ubisoft finally go down under I wonder.

 

[Exilarch]

And why exactly is Valve going to do what Ubisoft wants? It's not like they can threaten to leave. If they left Steam, Valve would lose what? Both Ubisoft paying customers?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I guess this means they’d rather people buy their MP game and be disappointed with the lack of player interest after purchase. That solves that whole problem of creating an engaging game that lots of people want to play.

 

[PSYCHOPATHiO]

Player count & what next? Revoke the player's ability of getting a refund!

 

[nguyen]

Steam should count players harder, heck let show player counts on the store page too

 

[AsRock]

I guess this means they’d rather people buy their MP game and be disappointed with the lack of player interest after purchase. That solves that whole problem of creating an engaging game that lots of people want to play.

That don't cost $70+, UBI prices and 1/2 the stuff they give paying even more than $70 should be in the $60 package.

Far Cry 6 was appalling to me the greatest pile of shit i have seen, to think they made even FC5 makes me wounder how the fck they did it.

Player count & what next? Revoke the player's ability of getting a refund!

Well the negative voting has been kinda nerfed so why not, so whats to make UBI soft ( or anyone else ) think they wouldn't

 

[Easy Rhino]

They will probably want Steam to remove the negative review option from the platform as well just like YouTube removed the dislike button after a certain person was elected president

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Curious as to who the 'other companies' are.

Ive heard Ubi wants to do it but not about other companies. Ubi wants it done because they want a way to lie to their investors a little easier. "Look guys, Our game is selling a billion copies. Please gib all your monies" - Yves Gilmot.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Ubisoft: Valve, we demand that you....

Valve: We're revoking your ability to sell games on our platform. Have a great day!

Ubisoft: Uh...umm...we're good. Continue to keep up the good work!

 

[Naito]

Sounds like another reason to avoid Ubisoft games...

 

[Totally]

Should we take a step back and see what made the old games successfull and try to replicate that while respecting the customer base, gain their trust back and make a lot of money? Naah, let's try to ban player counts so that nobody can tell how our another great product failed and we can keep that charade that it's only haters hating.
When will Ubisoft finally go down under I wonder.

It's Ubisoft, they haven't changed anything it's the same game formula they've been peddling for the past decade and a half, it's the coat of paint they are applying that people are taking issues with.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

It's good to see that the vast majority of gamers are starting to vote with their wallets, it gives me hope for the future, good job folks. Gabe is getting along in his years, and hopefully one day, he will hand over the reigns to someone that is not easily corruptible, ergo, that someone then can't be made to bend to others will.

Ubisoft deserves to fail, no bailouts.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Who needs of $team train today in 21st century? This is something from 18-19th centuries.

 

[Dorek]

Its enough that steam already removes negate reviews on certain games for better narrative, just seems its all paid reviews or nothing these days.

 

[Gigaherz]

Ubisoft also could try spending time in the real world and make/publish good games instead of creating a fake bubble that declares their dogass games as successful

 

[Hyderz]

Please dont disable us steam players, i dont want to be in a wheelchair

 

[Vayra86]

maybe they could make a good game to get higher numbers...

Nope, that's why they resort to these shenanigans.

They're lost.