The War Z no longer purchasable on Steam

I want to get real with you folks for a second. When I started writing about video games I was certain I was giving up one of my true passions - absurd trainwrecks of drama. They used to happen, certainly, but these days the industry was too self aware and too managed for anything truly audacious to occur. Sure, there is some drama in the industry, but it's mostly storm in a teacup stuff, genuinely serious or the massive unchained egos of certain indie developers. Unchained is not the same as unhinged however - and it's unhinged where the really amazing stuff happens.




That said, I do feel for people who are currently mired in what I am officially never calling The War Zgate - the entire issue is a horrifying mess. Fortunately, a horrifying mess with some resolution however, as Valve have now pulled The War Z from Steam - you can still see it if you search for it, but it is no longer available for purchase. This was picked up by Kotaku, who received a statement from Valve on the issue:

From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here.

Which is good news for those gamers afraid they would never see that money again - which, judging by the Steam forums were numerous. It seems Valve's Community Administrator Al started looking into the affair after reports from users about The War Z's Steam Community moderation, which was kind of totalitarian, with its rules against unhappiness and liberal dishing out of bans by the moderator 'kewk'.

From there Al no doubt learned about The War Z's past controversies and the original Steam bio's 'inaccuracies' - you know, before Hammerpoint updated them to reflect the actual content of the game. He probably also saw Gamespy's interview with Titov and the recently updated Terms of Service - which include the hilariously illegitimate claim players can not ask for a refund once they agree to the EULA.

Interesting and mind-boggling side note - Derek Smart Sergey Titov actually posted a thread on the official forums explaining the changes to the Steam bio, 'apologising' to "all the players who misread information about game features." Misread. As far as Titov is concerned it seems, consumers are responsible! They read the actual words written on the page in order, of course they came to the mistaken conclusion they did! Steam game bios are only useful when read through the lens of Kabbalah, the ancient Jewish mystic tradition of rearranging letters and words in the Torah. Could this be the correct order?




As previously mentioned, those who purchased the game on Steam can get themselves a refund via the Steam support site. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Hammerpoint Interactive and The War Z, what do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Thanks to SweatyGremlins the II for the tip!