The hidden ghost (and others) - Atomik Fabrik

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El Chico Gordo 25 Nov, 2022 @ 4:44pm

The hidden ghost (and others) - Atomik Fabrik

Sorry if I do something wrong. I'm new to this group.

I recently stumbled upon this game:
The Hidden ghost

and felt something fishy going on.

Not only is it priced almost 100€ (97,50€ actually) but it also fulfilles some other aspects like being developed by Beam Bong Games / published by the notorious Atomik Fabrik.

Further more does it contain the usual 10 review(er)s stating it is the best game ever where it clearly is a summy game with some asset flips.

So feel free to use this information. I hope this was the right place to "report" this (since I couldn't find it reported else where). Please let me know if I did not follow the procedure.

Last edited by El Chico Gordo; 25 Nov, 2022 @ 5:01pm

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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments

El Chico Gordo 25 Nov, 2022 @ 4:57pm

I should probably add that many of the games of this publisher have a highly fluctuating price history.

https://steamdb.info/app/1927540/ shows this game is usually available as low as 30 cents. So the price is increased to more then 30000% of the price some weeks ago.
Same goes on with all the other games of this publisher.

Like Cowboy Girl which is also available for 97,50€...

I understand this is nothing illegal. So I wouldn't claim it is fake/scam or what ever but at least it is fishy. Especially with always the same 10 people giving a thumb up in the reviews.

Last edited by El Chico Gordo; 25 Nov, 2022 @ 5:03pm

Eviction Notice 25 Nov, 2022 @ 9:00pm

It looks to me like they are artificially inflating the original price so that customers feel they are getting a deep discount during sales. The game originally launched at $5 and probably wasn't selling so they started this misleading practice. According to ISAD[isthereanydeal.com] the prices goes down to $0.49 during the sales. Subsequently, the positive reviews start coming in during those sales as well.

When a deal seems too good to be true it probably is.

Another reason for the sudden $100 price could be the dev doesn't want to sell the game anymore. I have seen this done on other titles, which seems odd when they could just remove the purchase option entirely.

Last edited by Eviction Notice; 25 Nov, 2022 @ 9:07pm

El Chico Gordo 26 Nov, 2022 @ 12:00pm

On sites like http://steamgifts.com some are speculating this is meant to manipulate the contribution value. However, it looks like there is more to it.
Not only since they set the CV to 0 there, but also this is happening to a multitude of games. And if it were only for an odd sense of advertisement, these 10 out of 10 positive reviews start smelling badly in any case.
So yea, no idea what's going on. But that is why I felt it makes sense to present this case here. I could imagine many who buy these games feel betrayed.