Ready or Not's review bomb campaign may have been short-lived, as player count subsequently doubles on Steam and it tops PlayStation's pre-order list

Ready or Not, the gritty, realistic SWAT experience, is currently sat at Mostly Negative on Steam, as players gathered to protest changes made to adhere to stricter console standards over the last couple of weeks. But despite all the angry reviews and comments, it doesn't look like Ready or Not has suffered any lasting damage.

Ready or Not's player count on Steam has seen a steady incline since June 26, rising from just under 6,000 concurrent players to a height of 17,269 a few days ago. The rise coincides with Ready or Not's Steam Summer Sale, which saw the game have a 50% discount—it now sits at just $24.99/£22.49, a two-year low.

So, its success can't entirely be summed up as 'all publicity is good publicity', but the swirl of negative comments and review bombing clearly didn't change much. Developers Void Interactive even tried to quell upsets further by releasing another statement reassuring players that very little was changed, but that only seemed to make things worse at the time.

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As I said before, when all the drama was first kicking off, I can't imagine a world where Void Interactive would prioritise getting Steam reviews back on track above securing two new markets for Ready or Not to be sold on—review bombing a game won't achieve anything if there's no follow through.

The gamble has seemingly paid off so far. Ready or Not: Digital Deluxe Edition is currently sitting at the top spot of PlayStation's pre-order list, with the base game taking third place, behind Destiny 2: Year of Prophecy Ultimate Edition.

But the real test will be how these Steam numbers fare after the aforementioned changes are implemented on July 15. Players could be just making the most of what they think Ready or Not should be like.

There's also a decent chance that most players will just carry on as usual, or simply use a mod to turn time back. "You can just mod it out if you want everything back in the game, there'll be a mod probably by launch day," one player says. Although this was met with some backlash, as other players pile on to say that it shouldn't be up to players to keep Ready or Not working as was originally promised.

But these changes are hardly mass censorship—they're so minimal that I believe it when Void Interactive says most players wouldn't have even noticed if nothing had been said. I have a feeling that it'll be business as usual for Ready or Not, and it'll carry on unscathed.