A Steam user left a negative review after playing Coin Pusher Casino on Steam. In response, a developer behind the game left a comment telling players to “Kill Yoursells.” This led to a backlash via a viral Reddit post and an apology from the studio.
Coin Pusher Casino was released in February 2024 by Tree Nuts Games and features lavishly rendered coins, gold bars and poker chips that are pushed down various themed levels as players collect jackpots. It’s the kind of game you play in the background while you do something else or listen to a podcast. And after playing Coin Pusher Casino Reddit user Koentjuh left a negative review on the game’s Steam page for over 100 hours, complaining that the game was unfinished and that the levels were not fully balanced.
A few days later, as seen in a screenshot, a Steam user who was tagged as a developer for the game told Koentjuh to commit suicide. The Reddit user quickly took a screenshot of the comment because he was afraid it would be deleted soon, which it was. If you look now, the commentary is missing from the review. However, when Koentjuh shared the screenshot of the response on Reddit it exploded quickly, getting thousands of upvotes and sending many people to Coin Pusher Casino‘s reviews, where they complained about the developer’s comment.
The studio claims to have punished the developer
This seems to have forced developer Tree Nuts Games to respond to the situation. On July 6, just a few hours after the Reddit post went viral, the developer has posted a statement on Coin Pusher Casino forums where apologies are offered to players for what happened.
“We deeply regret the recent incident regarding an inappropriate post from one of our developers,” the studio said. “We sincerely apologize to the affected user and to the entire community for this unacceptable behavior.”
According to Tree Nuts Games, the developer behind the comment has since been “fired and removed from the team.” The studio also claims it has launched a thorough internal investigation and is seeking “professional assistance” for members of its team.
Kotaku has contacted Valve and Tree Nuts Games about the incident.
“Once again, we offer our sincere apologies,” the studio said. “We are committed to improving our community interactions and maintaining the highest standards of conduct.”
Meanwhile, a few hours after the developer shared and deleted the comment calling for Koentjuh to commit suicide, he posted a message on the Steam user’s profile page apologizing to the player.
“First of all, I would like to apologize for my unacceptable comment earlier today,” the developer said. “Of course, a customer can [write] a review or comment that he/she deems appropriate and it is not my place to make an emotional response to a Steam customer. It was in the heat of the moment that I reacted the way I did and that is of course no excuse, so again my deepest apologies for my disrespectful behavior.”
Of course, this being the internet in 2024, people started picking sides. Many sided with the Reddit user and bombarded the game with reviews or left negative comments. But others sided with the developer, claiming that the response wasn’t that bad and praising the small developer for standing up to a negative review.
As for Koentjuh, the Reddit user who originally posted the review, they told me they still haven’t heard anything from Valve after filing a report against the developer and the comment on July 6th.
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