Developers are dumbing down their shooter to appear on console, immediately losing 50% of positive reviews – will still be a bestseller

The tactical shooter Ready or Not is being torn apart by fans on Steam: They accuse the developer of “censorship.” Currently, this seems to hardly harm the game’s success, even though the Steam rating is suffering significantly.

What kind of game is this? Ready or Not is a tactical shooter by the developer VOID Interactive on Steam. Players take on the role of SWAT officers who become involved in dangerous but also very realistic missions.

Here you can see the trailer for the full release:

This very realism is now somewhat lost for many players, which is why there is an outpouring of negative reviews. The developers have made some changes to the game to get a release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

In summary, the changes affect mutilations and gore, nudity, as well as explicit portrayals of violence and abuse against children. To avoid maintaining two versions simultaneously and to not affect crossplay, they adopted these changes for the PC version as well.

• Players on Steam now call this censorship and express their frustration. Overall, the game has 86% positive reviews there, but the recent ones are “mostly negative” with 35%.

MeinMMO recently reported on this:

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How much is this harming the game? So far, it seems not at all. The negative influx is not directly affecting the Steam sales of the game, Ready or Not is a bestseller: 

• In Germany, the game is currently in the top 20 bestsellers (Source: Steam)
• Internationally, the game even ranks 19th and 13th in the USA

Currently, there is also no negative trend in player numbers on Steam; on the contrary: Since June 27, when the changes were announced, even more players are playing the shooter than in the weeks before (according to steamdb.info). 

The rising player numbers and sales are likely due to the Summer Sale. The game is currently 50% off on Steam and costs only €24.99 instead of €49.99. However, it cannot be said how many decided not to purchase due to the negative reviews.

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