The Free2Play game “Storybook Brawls” (PC) had reviews of “very positive” on Steam until just a few days ago. People praised the title as “one of the best autobattlers.” However, the mood in the fairytale world changed completely in a short time, as a crypto exchange bought the developers and announced “ethical” plans.
What kind of game is it?
- Storybook Brawl is an autobattler, which is a form of strategy games where you place characters on a field that then automatically attack opponents. The player has no influence on the actual fight.
- The player’s task is to select which characters to send into the field and how to develop them further. The most successful autobattler is Teamfight Tactics.
- In Storybook Brawls, you send figures from the world of fairy tales and legends into battle: vampires, elves, that kind of thing. Storybook Brawls was recently considered a very positively rated game on Steam.
Completely ruined the Steam rating in 2 weeks
How have the reviews developed?
- From June 18, 2021, to March 2022, the game received 1,977 reviews in German and English. 82% of those were positive. This corresponds to a rating of “extremely positive”.
- From March 14 to March 29, the game received 593 reviews, of which only 10% are positive – meaning 90% are negative. This corresponds to a rating of “extremely negative”.
The game received such a slap that the “recent reviews” fell to “extremely negative” and the “All Reviews” are balanced.
What in God’s name happened? Nothing in the game itself.
But outside the game, a crypto exchange took over the game’s developer and announced plans to make the game the “forerunner” of how to “ethically integrate crypto transactions into a game.”
They assure that it will be “ethical” and “fun for the players,” but the players have already expressed their enormous displeasure before anything has happened.
On Steam, there are now reviews like:
- “Was one of the best autobattlers, but crypto is a scam to take idiots’ money and it’s a shame this game was bought to further this agenda.”
- “The developer was recently bought by a crypto exchange and they plan to use the game as a test vehicle for their NFT monetization. No thanks.”
- Even players with 250 hours write: “Can’t continue playing the game and support a game that is moving towards blockchain/NFT.”
This is what it’s about: NFT/blockchain is a red flag for many users. They see it as pollution or a scam.
Buying a game with the idea to promote it is met with a direct backlash. In the press release, the exchange had still advertised what good reviews “Storybook Brawls” has – now they are facing the backlash within just a few weeks.
NFT/blockchain currently have a serious image problem in gaming. This needs to be solved first before trying to profit from the good reputation of established games with such relatively harsh methods, otherwise, they will quickly drag these games down with their good reputation.
The crypto exchange behind the deal had already invested a lot of money in the LoL team TSM, which seemed to be a better strategy:
