I’ve reached the point where I honestly don’t feel that creators’ concerns are genuinely considered anymore.
The problem isn’t that buyers can leave negative ratings. They absolutely should be able to.
The problem is that when a creator reports a rating and provides context, the actual circumstances don’t seem to matter. If the rating doesn’t technically violate a guideline, the conversation seems to end there.
My experience
I recently contacted Fab Support about Skeleton Swapper plugin ( Skeleton and Animation Swapper UE4 to UE5 / UEFN + Swap & Retarget animations | Fab ) a product that was almost completely rebuilt.
Every 1-star rating on that product was left before the v2.0 rebuild. I rewrote the plugin almost from scratch and released the new version as a free update to every existing customer instead of abandoning the listing.
The response from Support was essentially:
- old ratings stay;
- buyers don’t need to contact the developer;
- buyers don’t need to explain their rating;
- buyers don’t need to request a refund;
- and even if the issue has been fixed, the rating still represents the product.
But that wasn’t really the issue I was asking them to look at.
Today, the current product is permanently judged by unexplained 1-star ratings left for a version that no longer reflects what buyers receive.
The inconsistency makes it even worse
This is what frustrates me the most.
Another one of my products, RM Fix Tool (Root Motion Fix Tool | Mocap animations root motion cleaner and fixer | Fab), previously went through a review audit after a major update, and its unexplained 1-star ratings were removed.
This time, I was told that previous exceptions don’t establish a precedent.
That previous experience is exactly why I chose to invest the time into rebuilding this product as a free update instead of publishing a new listing.
Today, I honestly regret that decision.
The part that bothers me most
None of those 1-star ratings have written reviews.
None resulted in a support request.
None resulted in a refund request.
Yet they permanently affect the product’s reputation and sales.
If someone genuinely believes a product deserves the lowest possible rating, why wouldn’t they at least contact the developer about the problem or request a refund? I’m not saying that should be mandatory. But when neither happens, and the rating still has an immediate and potentially long-term impact on the product, I believe there should at least be a meaningful way for the creator to have the situation reviewed.
Instead, from my perspective, it feels like the report is only checked against a guideline, rather than the actual circumstances of the case.
And if the current guidelines allow this type of rating to have such a significant impact without any explanation or accountability, perhaps the guidelines and the rating process themselves need to be reconsidered.
It doesn’t only hurt the creator
Lower-priced and free products are especially vulnerable because just a few unexplained 1-star ratings can significantly damage their reputation.
But the damage doesn’t stop there.
The product also becomes less discoverable in the FAB marketplace. The default search is “Relevance,” and rating appears to be an important factor in how products are surfaced.
So this isn’t only hurting the creator — it can also prevent Unreal Engine users from discovering useful tools that could improve their workflow and experience.
And I think this should matter to FAB beyond the immediate sales of a particular product.
The value of a marketplace like FAB isn’t only the revenue generated from individual products. It is also the way creators continuously expand what users can do with Unreal Engine. A strong creator ecosystem makes the engine itself more capable and valuable.
Blender is a good example of how a powerful ecosystem of community-created add-ons can dramatically expand what users can do with the software. FAB should be encouraging that same kind of ecosystem around Unreal Engine, not creating a situation where a few unexplained ratings can make useful new tools effectively invisible.
If a genuinely useful plugin becomes buried because of a few unexplained 1-star ratings, the loss isn’t only mine as a creator — Unreal Engine users may never discover a tool that could have made their work easier or better.
Creators carry the responsibility, but almost none of the protection
I’m not claiming abuse happened in my case — I can’t prove that.
That’s precisely the problem.
FAB doesn’t disclose customer identities to creators, so I can’t verify who left the rating, reach out to resolve the issue, refund them directly, or distinguish a legitimate dissatisfied customer from someone acting in bad faith. If FAB chooses to keep that information and control that process, then I believe FAB also has a responsibility to properly investigate disputed ratings instead of simply checking whether they technically violate the guidelines.
The creator carries the responsibility for building, maintaining, supporting, fixing bugs, and updating the product, but has almost no ability to protect it from a rating that may be misleading or no longer representative.
The question FAB still hasn’t answered
What is the intended path for developers who completely rebuild a product?
- Keep the old listing permanently tied to ratings for an obsolete version?
- Unlist it and publish a new product?
- Keep both listings?
Right now, there doesn’t seem to be a fair answer.
This is what kills creator confidence
After months of building, maintaining, supporting, and constantly improving products, what discourages me most isn’t receiving criticism.
It’s the feeling that when something seriously affects the product I’ve spent months building, there is simply no one on the other side willing to genuinely look into the circumstances.
I can accept a bad rating. I can accept criticism. I can accept that sometimes a customer will simply dislike my product.
What is much harder to accept is having no meaningful way to challenge something that I genuinely believe is unfair, and then receiving a response that doesn’t really address the specific situation.
I’m not asking for special treatment or for every negative rating to be removed.
I’m asking for creators to have some meaningful protection and a genuine opportunity to have exceptional cases reviewed.
Because ultimately, creators are the ones continuously building new tools and expanding what Unreal Engine can do.
When creators feel that their work can be seriously damaged while their concerns are simply dismissed, that doesn’t encourage us to build more. It kills motivation.
I’d genuinely like to hear from other FAB creators:
- Have you reported a rating you believed deserved a closer review?
- Did Support actually look into the circumstances of your case?
- Have you ever had a disputed rating genuinely reconsidered?