Cozy Game Outbound Asks Players to Delete Reviews After Refunds Following Lackluster Launch

1 hour ago 2

Outbound Dev Offers Refund to Remove Review

Published May 12, 2026, 12:50 PM EDT

Miller Reynolds is a Writer at DualShockers specializing in news, reviews, guides, interviews, and lists. He began covering games professionally in 2025, bringing a journalism background and more than 25 years of firsthand gaming experience to his work.

Miller studied Advanced Journalism for online, print, and broadcast media at Loyalist College, where he received the Excellence in Writing and Production Award. Before focusing on games coverage, he gained experience writing across topics such as politics, entertainment, and sports. Today, he combines his journalism training with his long-running passion for games to cover current releases, developer interviews, reviews, and practical guides for players.

Developed by Square Glade Games, Outbound is a cozy open-world exploration game where players hit the road in a camper van, gathering resources along the way to turn their vehicle into a home, but the devs may have hit a speed bump after a recent Steam review kerfuffle.

One of the Outbound Developers recently responded to a negative Steam review for Outbound, suggesting the user contact Steam support to get a full refund, and stating, "If you do so, we would appreciate if you would update or remove your negative review."

Outbound Receives Backlash After Suggesting Negative Review Removal

Cozy Game Outbound Offers Review-for-Refund

With a seemingly endless number of games available to purchase, deciding what titles deserve your hard-earned money can be a difficult choice to make.

Luckily, gameplay footage, official reviews, and reviews written by the community are all readily available and help direct video game consumers on what games are worth purchasing.

Steam user Snowy recently left a review for Outbound, stating, "It's certainly cozy and the art style is very cute, I was quite amused by the Firewatch reference in the lookout tower. However the game mechanics are incredibly shallow with very little variety, even exploring the world felt... meh. Definitely not worth the asking price, not even with the 10% off with the launch discount."

As far as negative reviews go, this one is very tame, and while this user gave the game the thumbs down, they also complimented certain aspects of the game and offered feedback regarding the things they disliked about their experience.

While this user gave the game the thumbs down, they also complimented certain aspects of the game and offered feedback regarding the things they disliked about their experience.

One of the developers responded to Snowy's review, stating, "Sorry to hear that Outbound is not your cup of tea. But that is of course totally understandable. No hard feelings :) Feel free to send a support request to the Steam support to get a full refund on your purchase. If you do so, we would appreciate if you would update or remove your negative review. Thanks a lot :)"

This developer's response was later edited, and the second half of the message (suggesting a full refund and the removal/updating of the negative review) was deleted.

As gamers rely on these reviews to help guide them, the Outbound devs are starting to receive backlash over the incident, as Steam user, Agent_Wolf left a review after noticing the refund offer, stating, "Negative reviews exist for a reason. It’s not a good look when developers ask players to change or remove criticism instead of addressing the actual issues being raised. Reviews help consumers decide what they’re spending their money on, and trying to silence criticism only damages trust."