An Indie game developer sends a death threat to Gabe Newell. Valve then removes his game from Steam

[José Mourinho]

http://www.pcgamer.com/paranautical-activity-removed-from-steam-following-developer-outburst/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ed-From-Steam-After-Dev-Threatens-Gabe-Newell

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Here's a free life tip that should seem obvious: don't threaten to kill the man who controls the platform your game is available on. Paranautical Activity developer Mike Maulbeck learned this the hard way, after a death threat to Gabe Newell led to his game being pulled from Steam.​

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Voxel-based rogue-like shooter Paranautical Activity has been removed from Steam, following an online outburst by its creator Mike Maulbeck. The developer reportedly made death threats to Gabe Newell after Steam failed to update Paranautical Activity from an Early Access title to a full game in a timely fashion.

The alleged death threat has since been deleted, though Maulbeck has since admitted that posting the deleted Tweet was wrong.

Other Tweets remain where Maulbeck describes Steam as an "incompetent piece of fucking shit" and a "monopoly", among other things. "It's just not possible to make a living in this industry without Steam," Maulbeck wrote, "so I'm just out." He also claimed that the service is "f**king taking money out of my pocket" and "misinforming people that my game is in f**king early access".

Speaking to Polygon, Maulbeck reiterated that he regrets the outburst. "I have since obviously replied to them saying that I didn't mean what I said and pleaded that they consider the monopoly they have on the PC market before totally writing us off," he said, "but let's be real. If they took the game off the store, they're fuckin sure about their decision. There's probably nothing to be done."

Valve's Doug Lombardi confirmed the news to Polygon. "Yes, we have removed the game's sales page and ceased relations with the developer after he threatened to kill one of our employees."

Paranautical Activity is still available on Desura and the Humble Store, though neither come close to the effectiveness of Steam. "Don't worry guys, everything is gonna be OK, we sold TWELVE copies on non-steam platforms today," Maulbeck later Tweeted.

"We were selling more than that a minute on Steam."

Upon calming down, and realizing the severity of his snafu, Maulbeck posted, "Welp. PA no longer on steam. I'm done making videogames now. It sucked while it lasted," later adding "I'm jumping back and forth between killing myself and getting a job at radio shack."

He did take one last dig at Steam on his way out, though, stating "I hope by the time my next game comes out steam doesn't have this awful fucking monopoly anymore."


Lesson learned: don't bite the hand that feeds you.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

So am I supposed to feel bad for this guy?

 

[Mechanism Eight]

He got what he deserved. Nothing more needs to be said, really.

 

[Obnoxion]

Someone at Valve really needs a thicker skin. This seemed like an incredibly unlikely death threat, coming from someone who uses your digital distribution platform (the only one that really matters, may I add) to publish their games. Just take a chill pill, relax and ignore them. No one is going to kill Gaben. People tard-rage sometimes. No need to potentially ruin their lives.

I don't know what the poor immature jerk is going to do now. Maybe he could make a new identity online for his future games. He'll find a way, I'm sure.

Dunno, maybe I've become too desensitized to people being jerks by spending way too much time on image boards and the internet in general. Actually, that's probably the case.

 

[Clown Doll]

No need to potentially ruin their lives.

Plenty of developers have their own digital distribution systems.
And as far as the "death threat" goes, I'm pretty sure it's just used by Valve as an excuse to stop doing business with a guy who basically accuses them of fraud.

 

[_blank_]

My, Maulbeck sounds like quite the sack of shit.

Upon calming down, and realizing the severity of his snafu, Maulbeck posted, "Welp. PA no longer on steam. I'm done making videogames now. It sucked while it lasted," later adding "I'm jumping back and forth between killing myself and getting a job at radio shack."

Oh boo hoo. Does he expect people to feel sorry him or something?

Someone at Valve really needs a thicker skin. This seemed like an incredibly unlikely death threat, coming from someone who uses your digital distribution platform (the only one that really matters, may I add) to publish their games. Just take a chill pill, relax and ignore them. No one is going to kill Gaben. People tard-rage sometimes. No need to potentially ruin their lives.

I'm pretty sure it isn't so much that anyone at Steam was so much scared by Maulbeck, but more that it's pretty much unacceptable in any business relationship to have to put up with bullies and twits like him (insert game journalism joke here). The guy seems pretty benign as a threat, but yeah, no real reason for Steam to want to keep and endorse someone that thinks it's okay to spout death threats to the people that are assisting getting your game's name out there.

 

[Surtur]

My, Maulbeck sounds like quite the sack of shit.



Oh boo hoo. Does he expect people to feel sorry him or something?



I'm pretty sure it isn't so much that anyone at Steam was so much scared by Maulbeck, but more that it's pretty much unacceptable in any business relationship to have to put up with bullies and twits like him (insert game journalism joke here). The guy seems pretty benign as a threat, but yeah, no real reason for Steam to want to keep and endorse someone that thinks it's okay to spout death threats to the people that are assisting getting your game's name out there.

This. That guy was completely unprofessional.

 

[niggers]

y'know i always thought "indie" meant solo devs or small teams circumventing mainstream publishing channels but apparently it means ceaselessly bitching about the mainstream channels you use to publish your roguelike

 

[UnwiseKhan]

Someone at Valve really needs a thicker skin. This seemed like an incredibly unlikely death threat, coming from someone who uses your digital distribution platform (the only one that really matters, may I add) to publish their games. Just take a chill pill, relax and ignore them. No one is going to kill Gaben. People tard-rage sometimes. No need to potentially ruin their lives.

I don't know what the poor immature jerk is going to do now. Maybe he could make a new identity online for his future games. He'll find a way, I'm sure.

Dunno, maybe I've become too desensitized to people being jerks by spending way too much time on image boards and the internet in general. Actually, that's probably the case.

Part of it is that there's a big difference between an image board, and a professional relationship. Unconventional as the company might be, Maulbeck is the public face of that company and is expected to maintain a standard of professionalism. Threatening to kill your business partners, even as a joke or in a moment of anger, isn't very professional. When you're in the public sphere, representing your company, you should fucking think before you say things like that.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

This latest thing where game developers and other people in the industry communicate and post in the style of forum warriors is infuriating and needs to go away. Unfortunately, the internet seems to be breeding a new generation of juvenile minded idiots with zero language filter, who just hammer onto their keyboard whatever half assed thought pops into their nerd-rage addled brains.

This guy shat in his own bed, now he has to sleep in it and has nobody to blame but himself.

 

[AnimuGinger]

Someone at Valve really needs a thicker skin. This seemed like an incredibly unlikely death threat, coming from someone who uses your digital distribution platform (the only one that really matters, may I add) to publish their games. Just take a chill pill, relax and ignore them. No one is going to kill Gaben. People tard-rage sometimes. No need to potentially ruin their lives.

If someone made a comment like this over a woman, people would be spazzing the fuck out, screaming about teh patriarchy and mysogenee. Just sayin'.

 

[Jackie Chin]

If he doesn't like if he fucking go bak to the fucking commodore 64, fuck his game.

 

[kagayaki]

Not everyone takes death threats as jokes.

 

[Konstantinos]

Ha, what a tosser. Paranautical Activity had shitty music so I can't say I feel that bad.

 

[Watcher]

I saw this coming.

Good on Valve for not taking this guy's shit. Paranautical activity was already shit and I remember them saying they didn't plan to update it after it left Early Access.

 

[Puppies.]

I've been following this guy on twitter for a year now. He has a hissy fit every time something happens. When he said his game wouldn't have multiplayer (a promised feature which many customers bought the game specifically for), people called him out on the forums and he went into full ragemode, attacked all his customers and said he was quitting games forever. Glad to see he got his comeuppance.

 

[Dr. Meme]

Wait i'm confused is this Phil Fish in disguise or not?

 

[exball]

Why is it indie devs always act like massive spergs?

 

[Dr. Meme]

Why is it indie devs always act like massive spergs?

Mostly the entitlement that comes from thinking you are both an artist and way ahead of your time, plus the massive stress of choosing such a job thats so intense with such a little payoff, and yet people keep at it because everyone wants to be the next minecraft without studying what made it so popular in the first place

 

[c-no]

Why is it indie devs always act like massive spergs?

Because they think their work could be better than whatever mainstream developer like Bethesda or EA releases, never-mind that their game could be more boring or banal than what other developers would release. They may as well act like spergs since they think their work is special, nevermind that there are indie games better than theirs.