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关于 Sentinels of the Store

It's Time for Real Change

The Sentinels of the Store is a group founded on the core values of transparency, fairness, and consumer protection. Our journey began when we saw the urgent need to address the growing concerns within the Steam ecosystem. Together, we formed the Sentinels of the Store to champion the rights of both consumers and developers, ensuring that everyone in our community is treated with the respect and fairness they deserve.

What We Stand For

We are unwavering in our mission to protect consumers from malpractice and deceit. Our commitment to transparency ensures that you can trust the games you purchase and the developers you support.

We believe in fostering a healthy environment where developers can thrive without fear of exploitation or unfair treatment. By advocating for fair enforcement of policies, we ensure that all developers, big or small, have an equal opportunity to succeed.

We take a firm stance against those who seek to undermine the integrity of the Steam platform. We actively work to identify and expose bad actors, ensuring that they face the consequences of their actions.

Consistency and fairness are at the heart of our approach. We strive to assist Valve in the enforcement of Steam's policies, making sure that rules are applied equally to all, without favoritism or bias.

Our Vision

We envision a Steam community where:

Consumers are protected and informed.
Developers are respected and supported.
Policies are clear, fair, and consistently enforced.
Transparency and accountability are the norms, not the exceptions.

We believe that real change is possible, but it requires the collective effort and support of each member of our community.

Together, we can build a better Steam community for all. Stand with us, and let’s make real change happen.

Part of the Sentinel Network

The Sentinel Network is a collective of Steam curators and advocacy groups dedicated to consumer transparency, ethical reviews & fair gaming practices.

If you value honest curation, ethical gaming, and protecting players from misinformation, please do join the groups that are part of the Sentinel Network.

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近期公告

DLC Spam - The Oft-Forgotten Issue Flooding Releases on Steam

3 月 12 日 - HIGH CAFFEINE | 7 条留言

It's no secret that DLC has become abundant on Steam, even amongst independent developers. Aside from games infamous for their large swaths of downloadable content like Train Sim World or Europa Universalis IV, developers have taken more creative approaches beyond traditional in-game content, including artbooks and development material, skin packs, and even DLC that serves as a donation tier as opposed to additional content. While you could argue some of this is a bit odd to be selling on Steam, they're normally upfront about what you'll be receiving and don't abuse one of the most important features Valve provides through Steamworks - developers can attach DLC to an existing game without paying an additional Steam Direct fee.

That might seem like an oddly specific thing to mention, but as has been seen through other services Valve has provided like the now defunct Steam Greenlight; when bad actors are involved, they tend to take advantage of the flexibility Valve provides.

Cyberphobia: Prologue

Recently, a title called Cyberphobia: Prologue, released in December 2025, has been displaying unusual behaviour. The game itself appears to be part of a growing trend of titles on Steam that rely heavily on AI-generated promotional materials - however, over the past month, the developer - Phantom Productions Yazilim Limited - has published dozens of “expansion pass” DLC packs for the game.
Many of these DLC pages contain little information beyond a short description and lack trailers or screenshots demonstrating what content they add. Each expansion pass is priced at around $200, and with approximately 60 currently listed[steamdb.info], purchasing the full set would cost over $10,000. Based on the information available on the store pages, it is difficult to determine what content these DLCs include. Digging for more information on the developer is an immediate dead end, as any social media presence for the company is completely devoid of posts aside from a Facebook post attempting to sell an apartment in Iraq. Their website has also yet to be completed, with many pages only containing filler text. One thing is for certain, however – regardless of intent, the developer has been using Steam’s lax DLC system to regularly flood the new releases.

TigerQiuQiu

Though this is probably the most bizarre case of DLC abuse in recent memory, it's unfortunately far from the first case of this happening. Meet TigerQiuQiu, a developer who - at least as of late 2022 - has mostly taken a hiatus from game development, only releasing a single game between then and March 2026. Before this, TigerQiuQiu gained a reputation on Steam for flooding the new releases page with tens of DLC packs, sometimes with up to 100 DLC in a day. Though all their releases were technically free, TigerQiuQiu would include very few, if any, levels with the initial download, with individual levels being sold as DLC. For example, one of his games - Tiger Fighter 1931 Sunset - lists 100 DLC packs at $3 each, meaning the full set would cost $300 for what appears to be a very basic shoot-’em-up. To put things into perspective, checking SteamDB shows that the developer has damn near 2,300 DLC packs[steamdb.info] still available for purchase on Steam, nearly all of which being $3 each - so if you really wanted to (for whatever reason), you'd have to pony up just shy of $7,000 for the complete TigerQiuQiu collection. Though TigerQiuQiu has seemingly moved on from this behavior, as his most recent title “The Attack on Egg Harbor” appears to be a proper full-length game, other developers still use these tactics even today.

The Persistence of DLC Spam

TigerQiuQiu might be the most prolific DLC spammed on the platform, but he’s far from the first and far from the last. Fairly recently, the game My Sudoku - X-Sudoku spat out a collection of about 10 levels as DLC into Steam, and checking the developer's page shows that they've put out well over 100 DLC for various games, most of which being for sudoku or puzzle games. Other developers of similarly low-quality titles have taken to selling levels like this, such as NSFW developer Reddiamondgames[steamdb.info], who has taken to pumping out DLC packages which are all AI generated artwork packs for simple puzzle games.
Even without taking into account games still available for purchase, numerous games and developers have had their games removed from Steam for enabling these sorts of practices - like the title Cult of the Cat[steamdb.info] which sold over 50 individual levels, weapons and characters as DLC, or Boobs 'em up[steamdb.info], a title which peddled well over 200 characters and wallpapers.

Though one could argue that more notable titles from large developers on Steam are guilty of spamming out DLC into the storefront (a practice I can't entirely defend on that front either), in those cases you're normally guaranteed some sort of meaningful content with a game that's had more thought put into it than an asset flip FPS game or a generic puzzle game. DLCs are an essential way for developers to both continue creating content for a game while still having the opportunity to earn additional sales for that work - however, as with many things on Steam, developers being given as much liberty as they have is a double-edged sword. While you have plenty of developers using DLC to earn money on meaningful expansions for a game, or to even sell small, non-essential perks like soundtracks or artbooks, there's also the unfortunate reality that bad actors have been taking advantage of this system as well. Though I can't say I have an ideal situation for DLC abuse in mind, I hope that Valve looks at the kinds of developers who are regularly putting out worthless and expensive DLC packs and puts measures into place to help prevent further abuse.

The underlying issue isn’t simply that individual developers attempt to exploit Steam’s systems, but that the platform currently provides few safeguards against extreme DLC proliferation. Without clearer standards around pricing transparency or DLC content disclosure, these kinds of problems are likely to continue appearing.
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Special thanks to our Patrons Stefan, Caff, old_Navy_twidget, Luke, Nin-Nin, emigrant, Pocket and Ismael Luque.

Check out our Linktree for our various pages![linktr.ee]

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E-mail Mellow: mellowonline1@gmail.com

Be sure to check out the other groups in the Sentinel Network:

Summit Reviews
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Review Bomb Tracking
Games With Paid Reviews
Dr Chopper's Neuro Clinic

2 月 28 日 - Mellow_Online1 | 111 条留言

“Hidden Cats” is a micro-genre within the broader hidden object (HOG) space: illustrated puzzle games where players search detailed scenes to find concealed cats. Over the past several years, multiple independent studios have released titles using variations of that phrase. Players often own several of them from different developers. The wording functions as genre shorthand.

Right now, Steam is enforcing a registered U.S. trademark over that phrase. NukeArts Studio holds the trademark HIDDEN CATS[tsdr.uspto.gov] (Reg. No. 7,968,484). Following a complaint from NukeArts, Steam has contacted multiple developers and instructed them to remove both words from their game titles or risk removal from the store. The compliance deadline is March 2nd.

We take a clear position: the enforcement of this trademark on Steam is anti-competitive in effect, harmful to consumers, and damaging to independent developers. Steam’s handling of the dispute amplifies those harms

NukeArts Didn't Invent the Genre

NukeArts weren't the originators of hidden object games featuring cats. Nor were they the only studio using the wording “Hidden Cats” or variations of it before the trademark was granted, nor were they the first ones to do so, even on Steam.

https://psteamproxy.yuanyoumao.com/app/1587560/100_hidden_cats/

One of the games that was forced to change their names even pre-dates NukeArts in "Hidden Cats" games.

https://psteamproxy.yuanyoumao.com/app/2907010/FIND_KITTENS_The_last_of_cats/

What they did was secure the registration first. The complaint submitted to Steam makes their intention clear. It doesn't simply argue that specific titles are confusing. It asks Steam to consider the registered mark when reviewing future game submissions that use “Hidden Cats” or similar phrasing as a dominant title element in the same genre.

One of the developers impacted kindly provided me the NukeArts complaint and you can find this below with only names redacted.

引用自 NukeArts' Complaint：
ORIGINAL COMPLAINT

CONTENT BEING REPORTED

Hidden Cats? is a registered trademark of Nukearts Studio in the United States.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Reg. No. 7,968,484
Registered Sep. 30, 2025
CLASS 9: Downloadable video game software; Downloadable printable coloring books; Downloadable posters

ORIGINAL CONTENT

I am [REDACTED], CEO of Nukearts Studio, the developer and publisher of the Hidden Cats game franchise.

Nukearts Studio is the owner of the registered trademark “Hidden Cats”, with a valid trademark registration in the United States (USPTO), covering the products referenced herein.

We have consistently published games under the Hidden Cats franchise over the past several years, including Hidden Cats in Paris, Hidden Cats in New York, Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro, among others. These titles share a cohesive visual identity and branding that players directly associate with our studio.

We have recently identified multiple games on Steam whose titles begin with “Hidden Cats”, such as Hidden Cats: The Last of Cats, as well as titles that invert the wording, such as Cats Hidden Around the World. These games were released by unrelated developers after our franchise was established, operate within the same genre, and use nearly identical phrasing to our registered trademark. Use of the registered trademark HIDDEN CATS as a prefix or dominant element in similar products constitutes trademark infringement, regardless of suffix or subtitle.

There is clear evidence of marketplace confusion, including YouTube videos in which influencers mistakenly display our Hidden Cats branding or logos while showcasing these third-party games. This demonstrates that consumers are being misled and are likely to believe that these unrelated titles are part of our official franchise.

For these reasons, we believe these uses constitute trademark infringement and trademark dilution. We respectfully request that Valve review the titles listed below and take appropriate enforcement action in accordance with Steam’s intellectual property policies.

Additionally, we kindly request that Valve take this registered trademark into consideration when reviewing future game submissions that use “Hidden Cats” or confusingly similar variations as a dominant title element within the same genre.

Our intention is to prevent continued consumer confusion and repeated enforcement actions, and to ensure that our registered trademark rights are respected on the Steam platform going forward.

A complete list of the infringing titles and their corresponding Steam links is provided below.

Plaintiff

That isn't defensive brand protection in isolation. It's an attempt to control the naming conventions of a micro-genre on the largest PC marketplace in the world. It consolidates market visibility under one trademark holder. It restricts how competitors describe their own games. That is anti-competitive in practice, even if technically permissible under trademark law.

Steam's Enforcement

Steam issued a notice to developers, I've included this also in full below redacting names and the specific games to ensure the developer who forwarded this to me remains anonymous.

引用自 Steam：
Hello,

We've received a trademark complaint from trademark holder [REDACTED] of Nukearts Studios against the following games:

[REDACTED] asserts your game titles infringe their IP in HIDDEN CATS. The trademark registration information can be viewed here:

https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=99016415&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch

https://branddb.wipo.int/en/similarname/results?sort=score%20desc&rows=120&asStructure=%7B%22_id%22:%22570c%22,%22boolean%22:%22AND%22,%22bricks%22:%5B%7B%22_id%22:%22570d%22,%22key%22:%22brandName%22,%22value%22:%22hidden%20cats%22,%22strategy%22:%22Simple%22%7D,%7B%22_id%22:%22570e%22,%22key%22:%22applicant%22,%22value%22:%22nukearts%22,%22strategy%22:%22Simple%22%7D%5D%7D&fg=_void_&_=1771453906318

Further, Nukearts has been continuously using HIDDEN CATS on Steam since at least 2022.

We know your games are important to you, so we ask that you change the infringing titles by the end of the day on March 2nd, 2026.

*The following game was not included in the trademark complaint. However, we're giving you a grace period to change all titles that infringe on [REDACTED]'s IP. Please be aware that if we receive a subsequent trademark complaint against the game, we will have to retire it from the store without a grace period:

Please note that the new titles may not contain both HIDDEN and CATS. You may use HIDDEN in your new title, or CATS. You can find more information on the game name editing process here: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/editing/name

I've included the complaint at the end of this email. Please contact [REDACTED] directly with any questions regarding the use of their IP.

I'll check your games again on March 2nd, 2026. Please note that I will be out of the office from 2/22 through 2/28, so any email replies sent during this time will be answered on March 2nd.

Thank you,

Let’s be direct about what this means. The enforcement email was sent one day before the assigned Steam representative went on leave for the majority of the response window. The representative returns effectively on the eve of the deadline. Developers facing legal pressure were given a compliance deadline while their point of contact was unavailable for most of the window. Steam chose to structure enforcement this way. Steam didn't pause the deadline. Steam didn't assign an alternative contact. Steam didn't offer an internal mediation channel. Developers were told to comply or pursue legal action externally. For small studios, that isn't a balanced system.

Developers Are Complying - Because They Have No Real Alternative

Multiple developers were kind enough to share their experiences with me.

Developer Matt Roszak wrote to me:

引用自 Matt Roszak：
I spent the next 48 hours quickly brainstorming some ideas and rebranding everything. It was a major inconvenience… Because my game was so close to launching, and participating in Next Fest, any sort of legal action I could take would just delay the launch for months, so there was little point in doing anything about it.

Travellin Cats wrote to me and explained the scale of the distribution:

引用自 Travellin Cats：
It’s not just a title change. I have to change all the Steam capsules, trailers, backend stuff and the game builds themselves plus new code to not break existing saves etc. It’s been a huge undertaking to do this across around 20 app ids.

Their lawyer advised that challenging the trademark would likely be costly and uncertain. Travellin Cats concluded:

引用自 Travellin Cats：
I choose to rename my games because Valve just complies. From my experience they don't listen to arguments so it would have been money thrown out of the window.

Even a developer who urged caution about publicity acknowledged that their own studio had been required to change its name. These are not developers celebrating a fair process. These are developers making rational economic decisions under pressure.

Challenging a trademark can cost tens of thousands. Renaming costs far less. Steam’s enforcement structure ensures that the cheaper path is surrender.

This Is Anti-Consumer

Players may not immediately feel the impact. Their purchased games remain playable. But the harm is real. When a genre-defining phrase becomes controlled property, search visibility consolidates. Discoverability narrows. Smaller studios lose descriptive clarity. Future developers avoid obvious genre naming. Market perception shifts toward a single trademark holder. Consumers lose clarity in search. Consumers lose diversity in branding. Consumers lose transparency in how genres are labelled. This isn't protecting consumers from confusion. It's restricting how competitors describe their own products in a shared genre space. That benefits one studio. It doesn't benefit the market.

Not All Developers Have Even Been Contacted

At least one developer has confirmed they haven't received any communication from Steam regarding a name change. The developer in question is a Chinese developer who released a series of Hidden Cats games in 2024.

This is a Net Negative

Let’s be clear. NukeArts didn't create the "Hidden Cats" micro-genre. They registered the phrase first.

Steam didn't create trademark law. But Steam chose how to enforce it.

The outcome is independent developers absorbing cost. Any legal challenge is priced out of reach. A descriptive genre phrase has been effectively consolidated. Consumers are losing clarity in discovery. Steam is structuring enforcement in a way that disadvantages smaller studios. The only clear beneficiary is the trademark holder. This is anti-competitive in effect. It's anti-developer in impact. It's anti-consumer in outcome.

If Steam's reputation is to mean anything, it can't simply default to procedural enforcement when the practical effect is market consolidation. This process is still ongoing. Developers are still renaming titles. The compliance window is still open. The imbalance is still playing out in real time. Steam can choose to be more than a passive conduit for market control. Whether it will remains to be seen.

If you wish to support the developers that are embattling this at the moment, please feel free to check out their games in the links below. Buy their games. Write them reviews. Leave your words of support and encouragement. If you're a developer who has also had to battle with these trademark enforcements, get in touch and I'll be happy to include you in the list below.

Travellin Cats
Matt Roszak
Gemcraft Games
cdhy interactive
Very Very LITTLE Studio
Sons of Welder
Hidden Cats
NaipSoft
Faithy Games

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Special thanks to our Patrons Stefan, Caff, old_Navy_twidget, Luke, Nin-Nin, emigrant, Pocket and Ismael Luque.

Check out our Linktree for our various pages![linktr.ee]

Join our Discord server.[discord.gg]

E-mail me: mellowonline1@gmail.com

Be sure to check out the other groups in the Sentinel Network:

Summit Reviews
Charity Games
Review Bomb Tracking
Games With Paid Reviews
Dr Chopper's Neuro Clinic

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Sentinels of the Store 的评测

"Games by developers that have received coverage on our group, as well as identified asset flips and titles tied to anti-consumer/deceptive practices."

这些是 Sentinels of the Store 最近撰写的评测

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Amberbaum 2 月 12 日上午 3:22

Thanks, Mellow!

Mellow_Online1

2 月 12 日上午 3:12

Hi @Amberbaum!

If your main concern is around the game’s anti-cheat system and what data may be transmitted when the game goes online, that would be better suited to the Fraudulent Activity / Scams sub-forum.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/discussions/22/

That section covers potential consumer-facing risks, including undisclosed data collection, intrusive software behaviour, or misleading implementation practices.

Appreciate you flagging it - just want to make sure it lands in the most appropriate section for visibility and discussion.

Amberbaum 2 月 12 日上午 2:51

It's not on itch, but I think it had an alpha test phase. Still, the reviews aren't even the worst. I'm more worried about their anti-cheat and what the game sends back to somewhere.

robilar5500 2 月 12 日上午 2:45

It's also worth considering that a lot of people will review games after an hour or two of gametime to make sure their reviews are the first ones posted. Typically, it was a means of points farming, and I think a lot of people haven't caught on to the fact that you can't points farm any longer, lol.

Then again, there could also be paid reviews. Just offering some alternatives that should be explored as well.

robilar5500 2 月 12 日上午 2:42

Was it previously made available to backers or on Itch.io or somesuch?

Amberbaum 2 月 12 日上午 2:32

https://psteamproxy.yuanyoumao.com/app/2966320/Starsand_Island/

Not sure if this is the right place to post it. Starsand Island has officially launched in early access. Their policies and anti-cheat are less then desirable. Game store got suddenly flooded by reviews after having no reviews. Reviewers barely played at all and say meaningless stuff in their reviews. Probably got pushed by the official discord to flood the store with positive reviews.

This thread in the forum is investigating what is being send and to whom when the game goes online. Start off from this marked comment and read further.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/app/2966320/discussions/0/762932162500560014/?ctp=14#c756177397086207505

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