Nearly 200 ‘fake games’ by developer Silicon Echo Studios have been axed on Steam.

That’s according to Polygon, which reports that 173 titles under the Silicon Echo and Zonitron Productions labels, have been removed for being low-quality shovelware designed to sell trading cards.

These titles were made from pre-made Unity assets, which means a developer can churn out content exceptionally quickly. Furthermore, the developer behind this was able to push multiple projects through under on Steam Direct application, meaning they only paid $100 in total rather than per title.

According to YouTuber SidAlpha, who has been researching Silicon Echo, ten per cent of all titles released on Steam in July and August were made by this company. The firm managed to publish 86 games.

This is quite a big move for Valve, who – since the launch of Greenlight – has been unwilling to 'curate' the Steam store page, rather letting the market decide. 

Anyone paying attention to the Steam market will have noticed the sharp uptick in games released on Steam since the launch of Steam Direct in July; Thomas Bidaux from Ico Partners was kind enough to share the below data with us at PCC Helsinki: 

The Steam Direct Effect pic.twitter.com/a0cRN89bqF

— PCGamesInsider (@PCGamesInsider) September 19, 2017