The super popular geography quiz game GeoGuessr just dropped on Steam in early access on May 8, and things got messy real quick. Within a few hours of launch, the game had already collected over 1000 reviews—but only about 14% of them were positive. That’s a big surprise for a title that’s been a fan favorite online for years.

So, what went wrong? While early access games usually get some slack from players, GeoGuessr’s Steam version hit a nerve because of how it's being monetized. The free version on Steam is extremely limited—you can only play duels with friends and test out a small amateur league. If you want the full experience, like ranked mode and other features, you have to pay for a subscription: $30 a year or $2.50 a month.

Even worse, the subscription you get on Steam doesn’t carry over to the browser version of the game. That means if you’ve already been playing GeoGuessr online with a subscription, you’ll need to pay again if you want to use the Steam version. Because of this, the player count on launch day didn’t even hit 6000. Now the big question is whether the devs will make changes or stick to their plan. Either way, the community’s watching closely.

Main image: steampowered.com

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