Fake copies of Helldivers 2 and Palworld are appearing on Steam and users are being warned not to purchase them.
Helldivers 2 is a third-person cooperative shooter game developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Players from all around the world had been enjoying unleashing democracy against aliens and liberating planets.
On the other hand, Palworld is an open-world monster-taming game by Pocketpair. In the game, players could explore the world, challenge boss towers, and fight or catch Alpha Pals.
Both of these games rose to popularity and emerged as two of the most-played games on Steam since their release. Currently, both Helldivers 2 and Palworld remain in the top ten most-played video games on the platform.
This may be the reason why fake copies of the games appeared on the platform, hoping to trick Steam users into buying their product. In the Helldivers 2 community on Reddit, a user shared the Steam page of the fake Helldivers 2 with only a few reviews and a release date of November 2023, yet having the same dev and publisher name.
At some point, there were even two more fake copies of Helldivers 2, one with 19 reviews and the other with 39 reviews. The fake copies were games previously released and published on Steam but have been renamed. Buying and opening one of these would be an entirely different game.
Palworld also experienced the same thing, with another copy of the game with a 95% discount priced at $2.49. It had a release date of November 2023 as well. Fans of both games wondered how developers could rename themselves without undergoing any review from Steam.
One of the Helldivers 2 Discord’s community managers, Twinbeard, posted an announcement warning everyone regarding the existence of these fake copies. They shared that Helldivers 2 and Helldivers 2 Super Citizen Edition are the only genuine copies.
Arrowhead Game Studio’s legal team contacted Valve regarding the issue and had been swiftly resolved. Currently, all of the fake copies of Helldivers 2, as well as Palworld, have been taken down by Valve and Steam.
Other games also had the same issue as Helldivers 2 and Palworld, such as Last Epoch and Escape from Tarkov (a game only available through their website). Be wary of the number of reviews and games’ release date to avoid getting scammed!