Google's Listing for Steam Has an Explicit Message for the Epic Games Store

Searching for “Steam Store” using Google’s engine still pulls up the expected site, but with [...]

Searching for "Steam Store" using Google's engine still pulls up the expected site, but with that result comes a very unexpected description of the store. The Google description currently contains an uncensored version of the phrase "F--- EPIC GAMES STORE" with some various characters found beneath it. There's an explanation for why this result is being displayed, but it's still quite the coincidence given the competitive relationship between the two storefronts.

This Google description feels like the sort of thing that'd go away in a few moments after refreshing the page, but following the initial spotting by PCGamesN, this search result has been up for a while now. The top result for the search term "Steam Store" is a link to the typical landing page for Steam, and beneath it is the explicit message.

Proof of the offending Google description can be seen in the screenshot below.

Steam Store
(Photo: Google)

As spotted by VG24/7, it seems we may already have an answer for where this particular phrase came from. If you head to the Metro Exodus game page on Steam, you'll find several reviews for the game that just recently launched on that platform after a whole kerfuffle with the Epic Games Store that took place when it originally released.

One of those reviews which was posted on February 17th contained the same message seen in the screenshot above. The review was emphasized by a middle finger found beneath the phrase that was made up of various characters. Those characters must not have translated well to the Google search result which gave us the description in question surrounded by jumbled characters.

Steam Store
(Photo: Valve)

It appears the description is just a coincidental, humorous pull by Google's automated systems that just happened to grab an explicit message. The fact that it's stuck around for so long is nearly as interesting as the fact that it happened in the first place though since one would expect something like this would be rectified pretty quickly. We've reached out to both Valve and Google regardless to see if either company can offer any clarifications.

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