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Steam

Steam launches ‘language-specific’ review scores, because ‘customers in different regions of the world may have vastly different experiences from each other for the same game’

by admin August 18, 2025

In its never-ending quest to achieve algorithmic nirvana, Valve has updated Steam’s user review scoring system “for some games” to be calculated based on the language in which they were written.

“When there are enough reviews written in a particular language, Steam will calculate a review score for that language,” Valve explained. “The Review Score displayed to users will be based on their primary language. What this means is that some languages may show more positive review scores, while others may show more negative ones, for the same game.”

The language-specific review breakdown will be provided for any game with more than 2,000 public user reviews, at least 200 of which are written in at least one language. Valve said the thresholds are higher than the 10 reviews required to calculate an overall review score “because we wanted to be pretty confident in the language-specific score before showing it to users.”

Of course, this is Steam, and that means you can dive deeper into the numbers if you want to. Hovering the “Language” dropdown in the user reviews menu bar, for instance, will provide a quick-and-dirty breakdown of a game’s rating in every applicable language. This, for instance, is the rating breakdown for The First Descendant, which is very obviously all over the map—”mostly negative” for Simplified Chinese, “very positive” for Portuguese and Dutch.

(Image credit: Steam)

There’s also a new language-breakdown popup option, which displays basically the same information, but bigger and in color:

(Image credit: Steam)

The new language-specific review scores are enabled by default—Valve said it wants user reviews to be as useful as possible without requiring users to “twiddle with the many knobs the system has”—but you can switch back to all-languages ratings in your Steam settings if you prefer. As for why it made the change, the simple fact is that Steam has become a global platform, and that means “customers in different regions of the world may have vastly different experiences from each other for the same game.”

“There are a variety of reasons this may happen for a particular game, including translation issues, cultural references, poor network connections, and many others; things that the Overall Review Scores haven’t been able to capture until now,” Valve wrote. “Calculating a language-specific review score means that we can better distill the sentiment of these different groups of customers, and in doing so, better serve potential customers that belong to those groups.”

I would observe with a certain note of caution that the value of Steam user reviews is dependent upon them being used in good faith, which is not always the case, and that language-specific review scores could maybe possibly encourage some, let’s say, friendly geopolitical rivalries on the rating scene, as users from one region take issue with the quite obviously incorrect (and maybe even biased) opinions of people in other regions. We’ll see how that works out soon enough, I’m sure.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Steam Review Scores Are Changing Amid Endless Review-Bombing

by admin August 18, 2025

Valve is overhauling how Steam reviews are displayed in a new update, it announced on Monday. The percentage score usually assigned to games based on the number of positive and negative user reviews will now exclude reviews written in other languages. The change comes as Steam becomes an increasingly popular global PC storefront and routine review-bombing from players in specific regions can torpedo a game’s rating for everyone on the platform.

“Steam’s growth since then into an even larger global presence means customers in different regions of the world may have vastly different experiences from each other for the same game,” Valve explained in a new blog post. “There are a variety of reasons this may happen for a particular game, including translation issues, cultural references, poor network connections, and many others; things that the Overall Review Scores haven’t been able to capture until now. Calculating a language-specific review score means that we can better distill the sentiment of these different groups of customers, and in doing so, better serve potential customers that belong to those groups.”

Not every game will be impacted by the changes. Valve said it will only start calculating “language-specific review scores” for games with at least 2,000 total publicly visible user reviews, and at least 200 written in a particular language. Players can now click through the review score section of a game’s Steam store page to get a breakdown of the scores across different languages. While this will now be the default mode for review scores on Steam, everyone will still have the option to toggle back to the old system.

“We realize that whenever we make changes to User Reviews, we’re inviting some scrutiny into our motivations for making those changes,” Valve wrote. “Maintaining trust in the system is crucial to us, so we’ve erred on the side of being as transparent as possible.”

The move comes just days after one of Steam’s bigger releases of the season, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, implemented controversial changes to the game following apparent pushback from some Chinese fans over historical references in the fictional Soulslike. While it’s unclear if that game factored into this new policy at all, games on Steam increasingly get review-bombed for all sorts of reasons that don’t always necessarily have to do with the underlying functionality or experience, from allegations of using generative AI to complaints of terms of service requirements in places like Europe.

Data from Simon Carless’ Game Discover newsletter earlier this year showed that a plurality of Steam users in 2024 had “simplified Chinese” as their primary language on the platform, followed narrowly by English in second place. Over the summer, Helldivers 2 was briefly review-bombed after an apparent translation error led Chinese players to feel cheated by one of the game’s weekly mission objectives. The latest changes to review scores seem like an attempt by Valve to keep those two audiences separate, at least when it comes to rating new games.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Battlefield 6 on track to do “the best Battlefield has ever done” and pass one million in Steam pre-orders, analyst predicts

by admin August 18, 2025

In case you somehow missed it, Battlefield 6 is taking the world by storm right now. The upcoming EA shooter is currently on its second early beta, having only last week brought in concurrent player counts of over 400k on Steam alone.

As such, Battlefield 6 is currently pointing at the stands bat in hand, lining up an absolutely scorcher of a launch in October. Early indications of just how successful Battlefield 6 will be are hard to parse, but video game analytics company Alinea Analytics stated that the game had 605k Steam pre-orders as of 12th August, based on its research.

That’s certainly an eye-watering number, so to learn about Battlefield 6’s momentum, as well as its impact on the wider FPS space and more, Eurogamer sat down with a chat with Rhys Elliott from Alinea Analytics to dive into Battlefield 6’s initial success, and whether the game can stick the landing.

Check out Eurogamer’s Battlefield 6 multiplayer 6 impressions.Watch on YouTube

Eurogamer: How did you reach the 600k Steam pre-order figure, and where does that stand against the performance of prior Battlefield games?

Rhys Elliot: “So I can’t give specifics on our methodology, but Steam scrapers, a panel of gamers that take info from. Current figures are at 800k copies through pre-order, revenues of $40m. Far above previous installments and other shooters.

“This is a welcome turnaround for the franchise. I’ll not say it’s been on shaky ground as prior games have sold well, but Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield 5 have been a bit of a letdown for the community, a look at critical reception or places like Reddit show its been a little bit of a fall from grace for Battlefield 3,4, Bad company etc.

“It’s an important time too as EA Sports FC – formerly FIFA – which still is EA’s cash cow has a bit of a shaky revenue long tail this year. So there’s a lot riding on Battlefield this year as there’s some uncertainty around FC this time around.”

Eurogamer: Where would you expect to see that pre-order number hit?

Elliot: “I think it’ll pass a million in pre-sales. It depends on the marketing campaign up until launch, we’ve still got two months until its release which is a long time. The second beta is ongoing, and the jury is still out ahead of the weekend which are the biggest days by-engagement on Steam. But if we look at the Steam concurrents on Thursday the 7th August, that was like 335k concurrent on Steam. Yesterday, it was 407k which is an improvement.

“So it depends on whether EA can continue that marketing momentum heading into September. There’s a lot going on in September on the shooter front, you’ve got Borderlands 4 coming out, a lot of other games… It’s quite quiet now in terms of releases, so there’s a lot of room for Battlefield to breathe. As we head into the Autumn period there’ll be a lot more going on, but as of right now it’s on track to do extremely well: the best Battlefield has ever done.”

Battlefield 6 is certainly in the zeitgeist right now, but can it stay in the spotlight? | Image credit: EA

Eurogamer: Reports earlier this year stated that there’s an internal goal for 100m lifetime players, a large part of that assumedly tied to the free battle royale mode. Do you think the game could hit that goal?

Elliot: “I think it’s completely unrealistic, to be candid. These are leaks right, they’re unconfirmed. But those figures are around Fortnite territory. Battlefield 6 is a paid game, and yes there is a free battle royale mode, so maybe that’s the ceiling that they are aiming for. But I don’t think that will happen. Battlefield is Battlefield. It’s not niche, but it doesn’t have that mass appeal that Fortnite or Call of Duty. 100m is a wild audience number.”

Eurogamer: Former Blizzard head Mike Ybarra said that Battlefield will stomp Call of Duty this year. Do you think he’s right?

Elliot: It’s not going to. Mike Ybarra has had some choice takes on Twitter recently, I think he’s been saying things like the Switch 2 not having a good value proposition, that gamers should tip publishers during economic crises. I think a lot of news outlets will run with Mike’s opinions because of what he used to do on Blizzard, but he’s just a dude, right? He’s just a dude on Twitter.

“I think it’s important not to conflate Battlefield’s pre-launch success – even if it will be a big success – with being a ‘CoD Killer’. Yes, Battlefield 6 is making all the right moves with these massive maps, a return to the core classes, the destruction. It is also borrowing a lot of things from CoD. Call of Duty is in a bit of a creative lul and an identity crisis, with Nikki Minaj shooting Beavis and Butthead while Snoop Dogg is twerking in the background. It’s weird! But it’s still a cultural juggernaut, it has a massive casual audience who buy it on autopilot every year. They complain, but they still buy it, and those habits run deep.

You’ve got to feel somewhat bad for Mrs Minaj, who has become the face of Call of Duty’s identity problem. | Image credit: Activision

“Battlefield 6 is undoubtedly winning over the hardcore FPS crowd, but CoD has that market momentum, the yearly launches, Warzone is there as that big pool for cross pollination marketing and a funnel into Black Ops. CoD has the seasonal content treadmill it’s been running for years and years, with streamer partnerships. Whether Battlefield can keep up with that is unclear.

“We’ve always heard over the years: ‘this Battlefield is going to beat CoD’. We heard it with 2042, it never happens. Even with Battlefield 1, which was a return to form for many, while CoD had Infinite Warfare. I liked that personally, it got panned by a lot of people. Even then, CoD completely wrecked Battlefield, and that’s because of the brand inertia.

“This could – and that’s a big could – be a turning point in which a few years down the line the tides could shift, but saying that Battlefield is going to boot stomp CoD in terms of sales and mind share is a bit of a wild thing to say.”

Eurogamer: EA has held back on increasing the prices of their games, and Battlefield 6 is still selling at the $70 price point. How important has this stance been for the pre-order numbers we’re seeing, and how damaging could an $80 base price point have been?

The Outer Worlds 2 recently went back to the $70 price point, in a bold u-turn by Microsoft. | Image credit: Obsidian

Elliot: “I think the shock of the extra $10 for a lot of gamers will be a bit too much. But with Battlefield and a lot of games, you’ve got the Ultimate Edition or Collectors Edition which costs $90 or $120. The super fans who can afford it usually do due to early access and other fans, and most usually do in the pre-order phases.

“Charging that extra $10 would close the door on some gamers, and as this is a year when it wants to make a big comeback, throwing the needle over to that sticker shock would have been a bad idea. I think in general, the jump from 70 to 80 is a lot, you’re closer to $100 than $50 at that point, and psychologically that’s a big step for consumers. Especially right now.

“People will pay it for GTA, and super fans will pay it for any game they’re interested in so publishers can have it both ways as long as they keep that lower floor price. Eventually, the RRP (recommended retail price) will go up for games – that’s inevitable. But for now, $70 is the sweet spot with some variable pricing for big hitters like the next Zelda or GTA. Though even GTA is a maybe, based on Zelnicks’ comments.”

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August 18, 2025 0 comments