Phil Fish Mark 2.0 Owned by Valve

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/indie-first-person-shooter-removed-from-steam-afte/1100-6423075/

In response, Valve pulled Paranautical Activity from Steam, and according to Maulbeck, contacted him to say it was terminating its relationship with the developer and closing down his Steam admin account. The game no longer appears on the Steam website. In a statement to Polygon, Valve confirmed that the game was pulled as a result of Maulbeck's threat.

"Yes, we have removed the game's sales page and ceased relations with the developer after he threatened to kill one of our employees," said Valve's Doug Lombardi in an email.

Maulbeck says he has attempted to get Valve to reconsider its decision.

"I have since obviously replied to them saying that I didn't mean what I said and pleaded that they consider the monopoly they have on the PC market before totally writing us off," Maulbeck said in an email to Polygon, "but let's be real. If they took the game off the store, they're fuckin sure about their decision. There's probably nothing to be done."

Maulbeck's studio Code Avarice has a history with getting Paranautical Activity on Steam. The developer was denied a publishing deal on Steam Greenlight last year as part of an agreement with Adult Swim.

Paranautical Activity is available through other digital distribution means, like Desura and the Humble Store, but Maulbeck lamented that the game sold 12 copies on non-Steam platforms today.

Hey steam is doing quality control!

Edit:

May he burn in peasant hell for the foul threat he laid on our god gabeN.

Hopefully these 12 copies will get his kids through college.

Fucking moron. Talking about getting bitch-slapped.

Grade A dumbass

Guy cut his own throat. Sounds like valve is pretty serious. Whoa.

What an idiot, deserves him right. Hell, I've got that game from a $1 bundle a few weeks ago, it probably wasn't selling that well on Steam anyway.

I do not feel sorry for the guy, but I do feel sorry for the employees affected by this guy's terrible mistake.Let's hope he never writes a death threat again.

Wow. He was close to the big time and he couldn't keep himself under control for 2 days? He ought to be ashamed of himself. Even more so if he had a team underneath him for this game.

“It makes me happy that there are people out there who, on this life-shattering, career-ending day, want nothing but to call me a fucker.”

“I mean, things might suck for me right now, but those people must be the most miserable. All the time.”

Read more: http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/10/paranautical-activity-controversy/#ixzz3GkUqqIvr

To be fair, my dog did die today.

Good for them. Altough this does highlight the problem that Steam monopoly is. If you're bigger team, doing retail releases or F2P titles you can easily survive without Steam. I mean, most of the biggest PC games these days aren't even avaible on Steam, but if you're indie dev Steam is pretty much your only option to succeed. There are some exceptions, mostly very hardcore games (sims, turn based strategies) where their playerbase isn't consisting of the "if it's not on Steam I won't buy it" idiots, but for every other indie team being on Steam is a matter of life or death.

This is the only game anyone needs from Steam anyways.

I've played the game while it was in early access, and it's actually a pretty decent game for fans of rogue-like designs.

However, the developer pretty much shot himself in the foot with a tactical nuke shotgun with all those tweets. You simply don't get away with going all crazy on your business partner (especially one as powerful and as essential as Valve).

Like in any other business, you maintain relationships by being negotiable, not with a "max renegade meter". It's why companies have teams dedicated to PR, so that some executive's rage doesn't... well, shoot the company in the foot like here. Regretfully he's indie, and his lack of interpersonal skills and professionalism are proving to be fatal.

TL;DR: He should have been more professional, and learnt more about interpersonal skills and law (i.e. some "terms" are always taken seriously, and shouldn't be played around) on top of just game making skills.

This article contains a bit more info: http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/10/paranautical-activity-controversy/#ixzz3GkUqqIvr

Apparently, earlier today, Paranautical Activity’s developer began begging for positive reviews for the game on its Steam community page, banning individuals who disagreed/gave the game a negative review.

Serves him right!

Please don't link to the anti gamer site Polygon.
Here's a freezepage link you could use:
polygon article

For a second there, I thought phil fish was a valve employee. Thank ****

now lets hope it brings to light the shit that is steam green light, and all the small developers that valve f**** on a regular basis because they are a monopoly on the PC.

Its laughable pirat....I mean hermits talk about hating drm, hating shitty business policies, and tactics yet steam IS DRM it was meant as DRM from day one and they bought right into it, and valve treats people like shit now that they are an uncontested monopoly.

I don't see how they are treating him like shit, he threatened one of their employees. Go into work and threaten your boss and then come back and tell us how that went.

I remember playing PNA a little while back and enjoyed myself. These guys had a hell of a time getting on Steam Greenlight despite having a working game when so much shit was being flooded into the system, but really this was a fucking stupid move.

Sending death threats to your Vital business partner isn't one of the smartest things ever done.

Steam really does have a crazy monopoly on the PC scene right now for better or worse.

More importantly he threatened to kill our lord and saviour GabeN. Such a threat should go unnotice as GabeN wouldn't lose the battle but, repercussions must still be given out for such threats.

Considering the largely sensitive atmosphere in gaming right now, death threats are a big no no.

Brilliant! I wonder if that will spawn controversy.

Edit:

Also, this is what happens when you not only rage at but also threaten your publisher.

It wasn't even just one death threat either, this guy posted dozens of toxic tweets in recent days.

Thanks for this, looks mega epic.

Yeah that guy must had been born with half a brain.

What a fucking pissant.