Steam Spy restores sales data removed after developer requests

The owner of unofficial data tracker Steam Spy has re-added sales information for games that developers had previously requested it remove.

That’s according to a series of posts on Twitter (below) from the service’s official account in which owner Sergey Galvonkin asked whether he should stop honouring requests by developers to remove their games from the platform following such a demand by Dying Light firm Techland.

Now sales info for games from the likes of Squad and Paradox Interactive, the companies behind Kerbal Space Program, and Stellaris, Cities: Skylines and Pillars of Eternity are once again viewable on Steam Spy.

By Galvonkin’s own admission, Steam Spy is not 100 per cent accurate. The reason for some developers wanting to have their games removed is down to both this, and that companies might make erroneous business decisions based on this inaccurate information.

Speaking to Polygon, Galvonkin said: The point of Steam Spy is to be a helpful tool for game developers. Removing several important independent games from the service will hurt everyone else while not necessarily benefitting the publishers of the removed games."

He continued: ”It’s not a ‘sales tracking service. It’s merely a polling service, that estimates the number of owners by polling user profiles. It’s a bit like an election survey."

Techland requested the removal of their games as well.

Should I just stop honoring these requests?

— Steam Spy (@Steam_Spy) August 25, 2016