Twitterappears to have labeled a Steam link to the upcoming RPGSea of Stars' profile as “Unsafe,” prompting concerns from game developers about the social media platform.Twitter, despite its controversies since Elon Musk purchased the social media platform, remains a key tool for game developers to spread the word about their games. If Twitter warns users that a link is unsafe, then it could harm that game in unclear ways. Twitter’s odd decision-making lately makes the issue worryingly insidious.
The “Unsafe” warning on Twitter has been in use on the platform since way before Musk’s acquisition of the company. It has been used to warn Twitter users that a link could cause harm in one or many ways. Examples provided are websites that attempt to steal personal information or corrupt devices, that are spammy or misleading, that contain violent or dangerous content, or that may otherwisebreak Twitter’s rules. There’s no indication that the “Unsafe” labeling’s usage has changed any time recently.
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Sea of Starsis an upcoming turn-based RPG with gorgeous pixel art fromThe Messengerdeveloper Sabotage Studio. Sabotage was surprised to find that links to the game’s profile on Steam have been labeled as “Unsafe” by Twitter. When someone clicks on the link, Twitter sends users to a warning page where users have to click a button saying they’re ignoring the warning in order to continue to Steam. No explanation for this labeling has been provided to Sabotage.
Speaking with GameSpot, Sabotage executive producer Philip Barclay says that the team is hoping the issue is resolved quickly. He says that this is a very important time forSea of Stars. The game launches in August and is currently beingfeatured as part of Steam’s Next Fest with a free demo. However, all attempts to contact Twitter have received no response, outside a dismissive automated reply.
What’s particularly confusing and frustrating about the situation is that links toSea of Starson Steam have worked fine on Twitter for years. The “Unsafe” labeling has only just recently been added. Sabotage says it plans to continue using these and similar links forSea of Stars' launch. It’s unclear if there’s a way to avoid the labeling.
While it would be easy to assume this is simply an accident, that an automated Twitter process saw a sudden increase in traffic to this link and decided it was spammy, that’s hard to say with certainty on the current social media platform. Twitter is known to make sudden and suspect changes based onowner Elon Musk’s whims day to day. WhySea of Starsmight have gotten caught up in that, or if this is a new policy that could impact other games on Steam, isn’t clear. But that’s just part of existing on Twitter, right now.
Sea of Starsreleases August 29 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
