A lot of indie games build massive hype before release, but sometimes the launch itself completely changes the conversation around them. That seems to be exactly what is happening with Outbound, the cozy open-world van-life survival game from Square Glade Games that recently launched on Steam and consoles after gaining more than 1.5 million wishlists. 

Initially delayed from April to May, the game’s launch date was shifted once more after Subnautica 2 was announced to launch May 14th. To avoid competing with such a high-profile title, the developers moved the release forward to May 11th, a strategic move to ensure better visibility.

On paper, the game has a pretty appealing concept. Players travel through a colorful open world, build and customize a mobile home, gather resources, craft upgrades, and slowly survive while living on the road. It is clearly aiming for that relaxing “cozy survival” atmosphere that has become increasingly popular over the last few years.

However, the early reception on Steam has been far more divided than many expected. A large number of negative user reviews have criticized the game for feeling repetitive and lacking long-term depth. Common complaints mention a shallow gameplay loop focused mainly on driving, gathering materials, and upgrading the van without enough meaningful progression, challenge, or exploration.

Other players have pointed toward the game’s relatively small map, slow pacing, technical issues, and pricing concerns, especially with some feeling the launch version does not justify its roughly $20–25 cost. The release of day-one DLC, including a school bus vehicle pack, also caused frustration among some players.

But the bigger controversy started after launch, when players noticed the developers responding directly to multiple negative Steam reviews. According to screenshots and community discussions, some responses politely encouraged players to reconsider their review scores, update them after refunds or fixes, or potentially remove them altogether.

It took only a few hours for the developers to address the blacklash within the Steam community forums:

Hi everyone,

We wanted to step into this thread to address the recent discussions and feedback on the reviews.

First and foremost, we truly apologize for how our recent replies have come across. We understand that our communication has felt wrong to many of you, and for that, we are genuinely sorry.

To be completely honest, the 24 hours since the launch have been incredibly overwhelming. While we started with a lot of excitement, the reality of a launch brings a lot of pressure and intense emotions. Looking back, we realize that the way we communicated was not the right approach, and we didn’t handle the situation with the care it deserved.

We’ve been working around the clock to investigate the issues you’ve been reporting and to get fixes out as quickly as possible. Regarding the comments that we claimed an issue was fixed when it wasn’t: please know that we have been replying based on the best of our knowledge at that moment. In many cases, we believed a fix was fully deployed and functional, and it is never our intention to misinform our players.

We also want to be clear: we will no longer be asking anyone to change their negative reviews, and we have also deleted our previous comments. We respect your honesty and appreciate the feedback, even when it’s tough to hear. It helps us make the game better.

Thank you for your patience while we navigate this. We’re heading back to work on the issues you’ve raised, but we wanted to make sure we stopped to say we hear you and we’re sorry for the missteps in our communication.

Please don’t hesitate to shout out if there’s anything we can support with.

– Marc & Tobi

Worth pointing out is that Steam’s own review guidelines specifically state that developers should not “artificially influence review scores”, which became a major talking point in the discussion.

One Steam user summed up the frustration in a widely shared review, arguing that criticism exists for a reason and that trying to convince players to remove negative feedback only damages trust in the long run. The review also criticized the developers for seemingly focusing more attention on negative reviewers than on players leaving positive feedback.