Why do Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players hate the Steam sale?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was one of the featured deals yesterday in the Steam Summer Sale. It’s still 50% off today. The common wisdom is that price drops on multiplayer games is a good thing. You gain more players, the community grows, and (hopefully) positive word of mouth will be generated by all the newbies having fun. It should be good news for Valve too, right? More players mean more weapon skin drops that will be sold in the marketplace generating trade revenue. So why is it that hardcore players don’t welcome the sale? Cheating is big business. That’s why.

PC Gamer explains that the Summer Sale pricing invites hackers and griefers to snap up multiple copies of the game, assign them to “smurf” accounts, and wreak havoc with the community. These people create new Steam accounts with just the one game, so banning results in a loss of only that title. Since CS:GO’s cheat reporting depends on other players reviewing replays, it’s easy for hackers to dodge justice. Most people will not take the time to report the infractions. They have better things to do than mess with the Overwatch reporting system. The Steam Sale means it’s a hacker’s paradise!

It sounds crazy that players would buy multiple copies of a game just to burn through accounts by cheating, but these are people that subscribe to cheat software. This is how they get their kicks. The next time some guy is shooting you through walls, you may be able to thank the sale for it.