Selling something that isn’t perfect can be okay in some situations. An apple? Just cut the bruise out. Shirt missing a button? Ask for a discount and sew one on. But when it comes to technology and video games, if your product isn’t up to snuff, those playing the games are going to be very unhappy. The distributors of zombie survival game The War Z  learned that this week and ended up pulling it from game site Steam.

Kotaku lays out the whole debacle from one end to the other, in all its crazy glory. The discussion also blew up in a heated thread over at Reddit, where gamers pointed out each and every thing that was wrong with The War Z. It was developed by a company called Hammerpoint and distributed by Valve.

The War Z was released on Monday and sold for $15 on Steam, and issues began to crop up immediately.

When users started complaining about a slew of problems — the game’s description was misleading, it was a lot like another zombie survival game, Day Z, microtransactions were shady, users were being wrongly banned — gamers noticed that it seemed they couldn’t write anything negative about the game on its official forum.

You can read a play-by-play of Hammerpoint and Valve’s reactions to the convoluted mess, from changing the description to be “more accurate” after Reddit users alleged the game was “full of lies” to the final resolution — Valve pulled the game from Steam and issued an apology and full refunds for unhappy gamers.

From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here.

In other words — we put out a crappy product and we should’ve taken the time to make sure it was as close to perfect as it possibly could be before selling it. A warning to other businesses that customers won’t stand for shoddiness in any transaction.

The War Z Mess: Every Crazy Detail We Know So Far [Kotaku]
The War Z has officially been removed for purchase from Steam. Your voice has been heard and Valve has acted upon it! [Reddit]

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