In a strange move, Sega has forced Steam analytics tracking site SteamDB to take down the page for Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Sega has allegedly mistaken SteamDB for a piracy website.
SteamDB is a website that tracks various statistics and public information about the games available on Steam. The website primarily tracks player numbers and concurrent player counts, as well as peaks to find trends in a game’s popularity. It is not a platform that distributes or sells games in any capacity, but Sega apparently considers them a piracy website regardless and is targeting the page of one of its most popular recent games, Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
In a tweet, SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik said Sega is, “Trying to take down Yakuza: Like A Dragon‘s SteamDB page claiming that we distribute the game.” He goes on to clarify that, “SteamDB does not support piracy, it does not provide downloads, it does not sell keys, it does not link to any websites that do any of these activities.” Regardless, the page on SteamDB for Yakuza: Like A Dragon has been taken down after Sega did not reply to SteamDB’s first abuse report. Currently, the game’s SteamDB page has been replaced with a message that simply states, “This page was taken down because SEGA is claiming we distribute their game here (we don’t).”
It is not clear where the confusion lies for Sega, but it is odd that the company is targeting Yakuza: Like A Dragon in particular. It is not even the most recent Yakuza release, and the SteamDB pages for the rest of the series remain intact. Djundik said that SteamDB receives “at least one DMCA per year,” but they are usually quickly cleared up. Sega, for whatever reason, is opting to simply ignore any of the website’s replies.
SteamDB does have install buttons that redirect to Steam, as well as links to purchase from Steam on every game’s page, so it is possible that Sega mistook those buttons for the website selling unauthorized copies of the game. However, even if that is what happened, it would be quite the oversight from Sega to pursue legal action without properly investigating what SteamDB actually is, and it does not explain Sega’s apparent disinterest in communicating with SteamDB about what is happening.
The legal move by Sega does have strange timing, coming so shortly after the entire Yakuza series became playable on Xbox. It is unclear whether or not Sega is looking to remove all of its games from SteamDB, or just Yakuza: Like A Dragon for some reason. Time will tell whether the developer ends up working with SteamDB to get the page back up.
Source: SteamDB
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