All projects from Poland-based studio Acram Digital have been pulled from the Steam storefront following allegations of review manipulation.
It would seem that one member of staff from the developer - Grzegorz Kubas - had been writing fake reviews on store pages for Rails to Riches and Eight-Minute Empire.
Valve has explained in a post on its website the decision to axe the studio's games.
"We've received a number of reports for Steam review manipulation on the titles Steam: Rails to Riches and Eight-Minute Empire, from Acram Digital," the PC giant wrote.
"After investigating these reports we have found that the developer, Grzegorz Kubas, has been trying to inflate the user review score for his titles. This is against our policy, and something we take very seriously.
"Because of Grzegorz's actions, we have removed all games/DLC developed by Acram from our store, and will no longer be doing business with him. Existing owners will be able to keep their titles."
Kubas came clean about his actions and apologised in a post on Reddit, saying that he was frustrated by what he saw as "bad, unfair reviews".
"You are right. I'm guilty. It came from my frustration of few bad, unfair reviews on Valve's Steam only. It was stupid action, not something planned. This is my individual, bad behavior, not the team, so I would like to blame me, not the devs. It's a lesson for the rest of my life and it will not happen again, ever.
"In addition, I would like to inform, there were no fake reviews on AppStore, Google Play, Amazon, ever. Every single review is true and most of them are positive. We have NEVER paid for any positive reviews. It was only my 6 fake accounts on Steam, done in amateur way, from the same computer, the same method of payment, the same IP. I was very frustrated.
"We have great developers, passionate in board games. They work very hard to deliver quality games. We listen to the players and we have implemented the features they asked for.
"We have sent the email to Valve regarding this issue and we are waiting for the answer.
"Blame me, not the devs please."
It's unclear whether Acram's games will once again appear on Steam; given that these were the actions of a singular employee and are seemingly not representative of the company as a whole, it does seem harsh to penalise the Polish developer.
