Spintires pulled from Steam following alleged sabotage

Spintires is no longer for sale on Steam. Grab some popcorn for this one.

Earlier this week, Spintires players reported increasing issues with the cult-favourite vehicle sim, apparently out of nowhere.

Community investigators tracking changes to the game's code purportedly uncovered what seemed to be an act of sabotage by the game's own developer - programmer Pavel Zagrebelnyj. According to sleuths, Zagrebelnyj introduced "time bomb" code to the game as far back as January 4. With no update to intervene, these bombs have detonated, ruining the end user experience.

Redditors worked out a couple of workarounds when it became clear that no official update would be immediately forthcoming - and here's where it gets really interesting.

See, Zagrebelnyj and Spintires publisher Oovee have been involved in a pretty public spat, with the programmer claiming he has not received his contractual deserts. Updates have been infrequent and erratic, and it's hard not to speculate on a connection.

For much more on this fascinating fracas, check out Rock Paper Shotgun's summary and Eurogamer's development retrospective, written about a week before this amazing turn of events.

Since the linked reports were published, Oovee has withdrawn the game from sale on Steam - although it remains viewable on the storefront.