Game reviews on Steam are now grouped by language

On August 18, Valve changed the Steam review system, emphasizing the language factor. Now, in those games where there are at least 2,000 reviews in total and at least 200 are written in one language, users will see not only the overall rating, but also a separate rating, formed specifically from the reviews in their language.

The company explains that this will allow to more accurately reflect the mood of players from different regions. Especially often, problems with localization are first noticed by foreign users, and now such moments will directly affect the rating. Valve considered the threshold of 10 reviews too low for an objective result. The language review system is enabled by default, although many other parameters can be adjusted manually.

Officially, Valve does not mention “review bombing”, but the update is difficult to separate from recent scandals. For example, the souls-like Wuchang: Fallen Feathers received a wave of negative reviews in Chinese, after which the developers released a patch that changed the plot and historical interpretation. And in early summer, Helldivers 2 faced more than 2,600 reviews, mostly from Chinese players dissatisfied with the development of the in-game campaign.