Indie dev issues YouTube strikes for negative reviews, Greenlight page removed
It looks as though Kobra Studios has either taken down its Steam Greenlight title Island Light or Valve has had it removed. It's a rather long story as to why this could have happened, so head below for the full explanation.
According to various reports from Steam users and the like - reported by Game Revolution - the takedown could have been caused by a number of reasons: the developer deleting negative comments, a copyright issue, or the fact Kobra Studios is issuing strikes against YouTube users for mentioning the game in a negative light.
The strikes are for copyright infringement, not for monetization issues via ads on said videos. No. An actual strike against the YouTuber for mentioning the game in a negative way as noted above. Strikes like these put a YouTuber's account in bad standing.
One such person who was issued a copyright infringement strike was The Escapist's Jim Sterling. He discusses what happened here, noting this is not the first time an independent developer has had a conniption fit over negative reviews.
He is not the only YouTube user who has been issued a strike: HarmfulGaming was accused, another named attackslug was issued a strike for just posting a reaction to the strike situation, and Kobra also had one issued to TheFijut just for filming the game's comment page on Steam.
What has also added fuel to the fire, so to speak, is the fact someone noticed the game logo was blatantly copied from a mask created by a DeviantArt user.
This may have caused the studio to pull the game until it could create a new logo, or Steam noted the developer's bad behavior and pulled it themselves.
If you head over to the game's Steam page, you will note the game is longer posted. Instead, you are met with the following message: "That item does not exist. It may have been removed by the author."
You can also have a look at all the comments on the Steam page before they were removed by the studio through Imgur.
Thanks, thegrimmling.