SteamDB Accidentally Accused of Piracy by Sega

We dont blame publishers for going after game piracy. But sometimes they can get a bit overzealous. Sega recently accused SteamDB of distributing pirated copies of the most recent Yakuza game.

Earlier this week, the site was temporarily taken down. An explanation was provided by site creator Pavel Djundik on Twitter, who said that theyd be in talks with Sega soon about the issue. They assured users that SteamDB does not support piracy, sell keys, or provide links or information about pirating games.

Djundik parts the curtain slightly, explaining that these kind of DMCAs happen at least once per year, and that they generally get resolved quickly.

Its important to note, for those unfamiliar, that SteamDBs only purpose is to share statistics relating to games on the Steam platform. This primarily consists of player count, both active and over time. It also provides information such as update logs, price changes, and Twitch viewership. As far as we are aware, it never provided piracy information.

So whats going on?

Sega has since responded to the confusion in a statement with Gamesindustry.biz. A representative explained that it was a mistake based on their piracy tracking system.

"We utilize anti-piracy software to protect our games at a large scale, but sometimes it makes mistakes. Sega will continue to fine-tune these systems to avoid this in the future and we appreciate SteamDB cooperating with us to resolve the issue quickly."

While not exactly an apology, its the closest thing were going to get. SteamDB is back up and running, and no bad blood seems to remain. Be careful if you thought about pirating a Yakuza game, folks. Sega is watching.