If you’re a cozy gaming fan, or even someone who spends enough time in any PC gaming subreddit or online community, chances are you’ve heard about the recent controversy surrounding Starsand Island. Following the game’s Early Access release, folks began criticizing the game for bot reviews, anti-cheat software, and the use of generative AI.
Now, first and foremost, there’s no definitive proof that the team used generative AI. Some community members argue there is a reasonable doubt. Until the studio denies or admits to using genAI, it’s just a claim made by members of the gaming community.
But for now, let’s focus on the Starsand Island reviews controversy!
Following the launch, Starsand Island almost immediately began attracting positive reviews on Steam. At the time of this writing, it’s sitting at ‘Very Positive’ with 90% positive reviews. Truly impressive!
But some point out that many of the reviews appear fake. They come from relatively new accounts. These accounts:
- Have 0 achievements but more than 4 hours in the game. You receive your first achievement early on, within minutes of playing after the character creation.
- Praise the game’s multiplayer, which isn’t yet available. Co-op isn’t coming to Starsand Island until sometime this summer.
- Use weird verbiage common with AI slop writing.
- Praise the game for its buy-to-play model without the need to spend real money on in-game items, which is an odd point to make about a cozy life-sim game in the first place.
Now, it’s important to note that, at this time, this is alleged review interference. Steam hasn’t weighed in on the problem.
Developer Seed Sparkle Lab, the studio behind Starsand Island, did address the seemingly fake reviews, asking whoever is doing it to please stop so that they can focus on developing the best game possible.
Many within the gaming community, however, appear skeptical. Some feel it’s Seed Sparkle paying for positive reviews, but there’s no proof of that. Why would they? It’s easier than ever to spot a fake review, especially one written by AI. Paying for such reviews would only harm the project and the studio’s reputation; it would be a foolish endeavour.
Then, why would someone post fake reviews? Because it’s an excellent way to have a game flagged on Steam and potentially removed from the store.
Perhaps someone wants the competition out of the way? Who knows! But we’ll continue keeping an eye on the situation as it develops!