Granado Espada Manipulates Steam Release Date?

In an odd turn of events, MMORPG Granado Espada's play button was mysteriously removed from Steam, and the game now claims it will be launching—fresh—on December 13th. That is certainly strange: Granado Espada released on Steam back in January.

Based on SteamCharts, it appears Granado Espada was removed from Steam on November 30th, which coincides with a scheduled server maintenance. But server maintenance doesn't explain why a game would be removed from Steam. Or, why Granado Espada now sits on top of Steam's "Coming Soon" tab under free-to-play.

Because it's not coming soon; it already came.

And the nearly decade old game isn't dead. It just completed a server maintenance on December 7th, and Granado Espada can still be played through the official website. So what's going on here?

I took out my razor and sliced through the available possibilities, and I'm left with only one: Granado Espada is manipulating its release date to be pushed back to the front page of free-to-play MMORPGs. I'll admit it's a leap of connections, hence the "?" in the title. But without an explanation from the publisher I'm lead to believe this was a tactical maneuver no one expected to attract notice.

It seems like a surreptitious and gross abuse of Steam's system, masquerading a game as a newer title after it's been released to attract players. I guess I can't blame the Granado Espada team for using whatever tactics it has available to galvanize its playerbase (it should be played for SoundTeMP's soundtrack alone), but Valve needs to ensure this type of behavior is buffered against.

What I find especially absurd is that all of Grando Espada's reviews are now listed as "Pre-Release Review." What? No. The game was released. I can't imagine the tag will fool many people, but that doesn't make it any less disingenuous.

I ought to point out that there are a number of user reports from over this past summer claiming the Play Now button on Granado Espada's Steam Page was broken. But that's not an excuse to relaunch Granado Espada as an upcoming title. The errors on the page ought to have been addressed and the page ought to have remained exactly as it was.

Maybe this is Valve's fault: Granado Espada fixed up their page and resubmitted to Steam, whose logistical team didn't realize Granado Espada was already released—considering 80% of all Steam games were released in the last three years. I'm willing to believe Valve dropped the ball, but then again why has Granado Espada been silent on the matter?

Maybe none of this seems like a big deal to you. After-all Granado Espada is an old game that had a dwindling playerbase the second day after it launched on Steam.

But is this a rare occurrence? Or is it a sign of how publishers can manipulate their release dates? Are there other games out there that have altered their release date to push themselves back to the top of Steam's sorting lists? Is this a hole that Valve needs to plug?

I doubt it could work for bigger titles, but indie projects that have fizzled out like a firework might try a second chance at life by changing their release.

Is this a standalone case, or have other games followed the same steps to rejuvenate themselves? I'm not sure. I am sure that a game's Steam Page release date ought not to be changed.