This week, players of the popular trucking game Spintires were reporting problems with their game even though there had been no changes made to the game itself.
Members of the community have been digging through the game's code and have found, interestingly, what looks like code that was intended to ruin the user's experience after a certain amount of time.
It was supposedly put there by the game's own programmer, Pavel Zagrebelnyj, who has been involved in an argument with the game's publisher, Oovee, and the programmer has claimed he is not getting what was written in the contract for the game (we last told you about this about a year ago, more on that here).
Zagrebelnyj has recently spoken to http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/267106/Spintires_dev_refutes_allegations_he_sabotaged_his_own_game.php ">Gamasutra</a>, denying any foul play involving the game's code: "I would never do something that would affect the gamers! I do my best to make sure the game only brings joy to those who play it."
He is also unsure where the accusations against him are coming from, but he does confirm that there is a time-based bug relating to piracy checks. The bugfix was given to Oovee but they haven't yet uploaded it to Steam.
Oovee has also given their two-cents on the matter, coming out with their own http://www.oovee.co.uk/forum/topic/12604-official-statement-re-bug-issue-and-sabotage-allegations/">statement</a>:
"We are aware of recent press speculation relating to sabotage of the Spintires game by the lead developer Pavel. We wish to express our displeasure at this speculation and totally refute these and other recent allegations. It is a shame that some press are reporting this without talking to us, and even saying in some articles they are yet to talk to us.
"The situation on the bug is that we became aware of a major bug last week that caused the game to stop for some users. We have been working on this with Pavel since it came up. Progress on the next planned update has been suspended while we sort the bug issue."
Members of the Spintires community on https://www.reddit.com/r/Spintires/comments/47m5ju/psa_timebomb_present_in_spintiresexe_community/ ">Reddit</a> have found a workaround, enabling players to still access the game.