GeoGuessr Steam Edition Review Bombed for Monetization Tactics
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- GeoGuessr Steam Edition was greeted with “Overwhelmingly Negative” Steam reviews just one day after its release, May 8.
- Reviewers criticized the game for its pay-to-play monetization strategies.
- GeoGuessr Steam Edition markets two subscription plans to access in-game features.
GeoGuessr Steam Edition was greeted with “Overwhelmingly Negative” Steam reviews just one day after its release, May 8. Many critics claim the Steam port heavily promotes a pay-to-play game model.
“The developers expect you to pay for 2 different subscriptions or pay for elite yearly just to have the steam edition, which is currently essentially a severely limited version of the web edition,” one reviewer wrote. The review is currently voted the most helpful review for the game.
According to another Steam reviewer, “This game has NONE of the features of the browser version, no battle royale, no singleplayer, no map creator, no community maps, no way to practice, NOTHING but ranked duels.”
Instead of providing an untouched port of the game, GeoGuessr limited playability behind a paywall. This decision severely hinders the free-to-play viability, which is what the game is labeled as on its official Steam listing. GeoGuessr currently sits at 1,121 “Negative” reviews and 199 “Positive” reviews.
Having initially released in May of 2013, GeoGuessr is a geography-based online game where people try to guess the location of a random Google Street View. The closer the guess is to the actual spot, the more points the player earns. The game saw renewed interest in 2020 and 2021.
