If you haven’t pulled the trigger on Helldivers 2 yet, watch out for fugazis on the Steam store.
It seems that scammers are trying to take advantage of unwitting gamers who’ve yet to purchase the hot new shooter.
Overnight, a bunch of fake listings for Helldivers 2 appeared on the gaming marketplace Steam, all with eye-catching discounts aimed at enticing players.
Thankfully, the gaming community was quick to call out the dupes on social media, with Steam owner Valve swiftly removing the offending games at the behest of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios.
So, what happened? Apparently, the developers behind the fakes made their existing game pages look exactly like the Helldivers 2 page to convince people to buy them. They also listed the games with significant discounts of up to 75 per cent. It was only after the fakes were downloaded that players realised they had bought a completely different game.
As spotted by users on X, the duplicates belonged to a pair of retro-style indie games called Figurality and Do Not Smile. Luckily, Arrowhead quickly sniffed out the scam and reached out to Valve to get the fake listings removed, according to Windows Central.
HELLDIVERS 2 SCAM!!
— Nessa 🦊 🌸 (@KitsunessaEN) March 1, 2024
These developers made their game page look exactly like the Helldiver 2 Page to scam others into buying their game
Link: https://t.co/lXSPD3QmHv@Steam https://t.co/gBTUg25qyz pic.twitter.com/ylRL9n2mh8
"All fake store pages now seem to have been taken down by Valve, who acted very swiftly after we reached out," wrote Arrowhead's community manager Thomas "Twinbeard" Petersson in an update on the official Helldivers 2 Discord.
"We’ll assess everything in due time. Also, a big thank you to everyone who DMed or pinged me/us about the fake pages and games. Together we stand."
🚨PSA🚨
— 0xSkeptic | Cringe Connoisseur (@RishiAlwani) March 1, 2024
HELLDIVERS 2 IS NOT DISCOUNTED ON STEAM THIS IS A SCAM
(also lmao valve fix this) https://t.co/k5cbpCMYKD
Currently, Steam only contains the real Helldivers 2, which costs a wallet-pleasing £35, and the Super Citizen Edition of the game. The alien bug-blaster has been presiding over the Steam top sellers chart for weeks.
But, gamers should still be wary of fakes popping up over the weekend, especially if this turns into a cat-and-mouse game between Steam and the scammers. As Petersson noted, the best way to spot if a Helldivers 2 listing is the real deal is to check if the launch date of February 8, 2024 is correct.
"People posting as us trying to scam people is obviously very sad and frustrating, and for that as well as for security reasons we urge you to stay clear of them," he said. "Again, the only two Helldivers 2 products we market are Helldivers 2 and Helldivers 2 Super Citizen Edition."
