Operation: Harsh Doorstop is a free tactical shooter on Steam, positioned as a competitor to first-person shooters with a certain claim to realism like Battlefield. However, the creator’s demands on influencers seem rather unrealistic to many users.
What kind of game is this? Operation: Harsh Doorstop is a free tactical shooter that entered Early Access on Steam on February 15, 2023. The idea behind the game is to offer a kind of free alternative to games like Arma, while heavily relying on the community and placing a strong focus on mods.
The largest update to date is scheduled for February 28, 2025, bringing numerous features such as vehicles, building, and reviving into the game. In advance, however, the game’s creator, known as Bluedrake42, has garnered attention with a warning to content creators who discuss the game.
Self-proclaimed Battlefield competitor threatens legal issues
What did the developer say? Bluedrake42, who has over a million subscribers on YouTube, issued a warning to content creators in a post on X:
- Influencers who have accepted more than $10,000 (about €9,645) from competing studios in the past 12 months must disclose this in reviews of his game.
- Otherwise, “you and I will have legal problems,” said the developer.
- He is tired of watching these influencers tear down games that do not generate money for them.
How exactly this will play out, Bluedrake42 intends to elaborate on as the release date approaches.
In response to a user’s question about which games he considers his competition, Bluedrake42 answers: “Squad, Delta Force, Battlefield, Arma. Any realistic/semi-realistic FPS.”
The developer also clarifies that he is happy to accept criticism, just not from people who, in his assessment, have a financial interest in seeing it fail.
How should content creators behave? In a video from February 11, 2025, Bluedrake42 explains that he is particularly concerned about content creators comparing his game to another without mentioning that they have a deal with that other game. He therefore suggests phrases like:
“Hey, I recently signed a $40,000 deal with that other game, so I might be biased. But here are my honest first impressions.” (via X)
If the developer’s goal was to avoid biased reviews of his game, the action has likely had the opposite effect so far. On Steam, the reviews for Operation: Harsh Doorstep show a significant downward trend: of the 44 reviews submitted on February 12, only 2 were positive.
In addition to Operation: Harsh Doorstop, the year has several other shooter releases lined up that you can look forward to. We present 10 of them here on MeinMMO: 10 new shooters that are particularly interesting in 2025 – These releases you should mark on your calendar
