Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler caused a bit of panic over the weekend as comments he left on Discord made the rounds, causing fans and media outlets to worry the Ori and the Blind Forest developer was in danger of shutting down due to the reception to its latest release, No Rest for the Wicked.
“It’s entirely possible that we won’t be around in a couple of months to do anything anymore simply because we got review bombed which leads to people not buying the game,” he wrote (via NeoGAF). “Which means we’re not making any money and will have to shut down.” He also announced a call to arms, essentially, for No Rest for the Wicked players to leave positive reviews of the game on Steam.
Mahler quickly shifted gears, however, stating that Moon Studios was doing just fine. In a post on X, Mahler backtracked and clarified his comments. “I have no issue telling active players who love Wicked that they should go ahead and leave a positive review on Steam. After all, it’s allowed on Steam to buy a game, leave a negative review that doesn’t even talk about the game at all […] and then instantly refund it… and the negative review still counts. If that’s allowed, then it should also be allowed for a developer to encourage their players to share their real experiences.” He also complained about being branded a “Nazi” and segued into a tangent about not commenting on the war in Ukraine. Read the whole tweet. It’s… weird.
What’s not weird, though, is the reception to Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked. It launched into early access on Steam in April 2024 and currently sits with a “Mostly Positive” rating on Valve’s platform, with over 8,000 recent and 35,000 lifetime reviews — not sure if I would call that being “review bombed.” No Rest for the Wicked recently received a new major update titled “The Breach” and with it came new quests, game modes, story scenes, performance improvements, and a whole lot more. You can read the official patch notes on the game’s website.
Polygon has requested comment from Moon Studios regarding the effects of No Rest for the Wicked’s Steam reviews and will update this story accordingly.
