Helldivers 2 has been a monumental success. Despite no one betting on it, Arrowhead Games Studios have managed to create a game that is already one of the big hits of the year. Even using a graphics engine that has been unsupported for many years. A feat that no one expected, probably not even the people at the studio themselves. This has led to some unscrupulous individuals trying to take advantage of its success.
For a few hours, on August 29, 2024, it seemed like Helldivers 2 had a 75% off offer. And another one for 50%. And also the game at its base price, 39.99 euros. That is, for a few hours there were three different entries of Helldivers 2 on Steam, causing some users to feel very confused about it. As noted by the well-known influencer Wario64 on Twitter, this was an attempt to scam and take advantage of the game’s success. Because the two Helldivers 2 with an associated offer were, in reality, other games pretending to be Arrowhead’s in order to scam users.
Modifying metadata on the Steam page is very easy, as long as the game is already approved. Reviewing the information on Steamdb, it is possible to see that these two entries were for games called DO NOT SMILE and Figurality. Despite the name change, it is possible to see their original names and the changes made over time, both coinciding with the fraud.
Figurality modified all its data to copy Helldivers 2 at 3:53 in the morning on Thursday, February 29th, while DO NOT SMILE would do it at 4:45 on the same day. Although we do not know if it was a coordinated scam, or if the developers of DO NOT SMILE saw what Figurality did and decided to take advantage of the situation, Steam would take approximately four hours to remove both pages from the store.
While this type of scams is not common, they could happen again in the future. The best ways to avoid them are to use common sense. If an offer is too good to be true, it is important to check the developer’s social media to see if they mention anything about an ongoing offer. If not, we should check if there are multiple entries for the same game in the search engine; if there are, it is likely to be a scam, but not necessarily. Finally, for complete security, we can check the Steamdb record, where changes cannot go unnoticed. This is the 100% safe way to avoid being deceived.
While it is true that Steam took care of both quickly, that doesn’t mean it’s not important to keep in mind that these things happen. They could happen again. And the best way to avoid them is to have the tools to be able to identify them and let the platform know so they can intervene.
