Wallpaper Engine Reviews Are Tanking as the Little Red Car Finally Hits a Wall

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Wallpaper Engine has seen a clear drop in recent Steam reviews after its developers announced that the Workshop's "Applications" section will be shut down. The software still holds an overall 98% positive rating on Steam, but its recent score has fallen to 68%, leaving it at "Mostly Positive." Steam data shown after the announcement indicates that June 25 and June 26 were the worst days for negative reviews, with positive rates of just 34% and 41%.

This isn't because Wallpaper Engine suddenly became worse software. The real issue is that the developers shut down one of the Workshop's most controversial but still meaningful sections. Longtime users know why Wallpaper Engine, known to many players as the "little red car" because of its red sports car cover image, has remained relevant on Steam for years: convenience, stability, and a Workshop ecosystem that put very little friction between users and what they wanted. Once the Applications section is gone, the backlash is easy to understand. The software still works, but it does not feel quite the same.

The team's explanation is simple. Hackers had previously used Wallpaper Engine's Workshop to spread malware, and some users reportedly suffered real losses as a result. The developers said the incident drew widespread attention and put considerable pressure on Valve, which led them to announce that they would permanently close the "Applications" section for the foreseeable future. The phrasing is awkward: "permanently close" and "for the foreseeable future" do not sit comfortably together. It reads like damage-control language meant to contain the fallout without really answering the complaint.

The review data is hard to argue with. On June 25, the page logged 309 positive reviews against 593 negative reviews, for a positive ratio of 34%. On June 26, the ratio improved slightly, but only to 543 positive reviews versus 783 negative reviews, with a 41% positive ratio. Since the announcement was posted, new negative reviews have already climbed past 1,000. Are players simply venting? Not entirely. A large share of the criticism lands on one specific point: people are not objecting to security measures in principle, they are unhappy that the team removed the entire section outright.

Even so, the overall 98% positive rating is still there, which tells you the software's foundation has not collapsed. Users who continue to leave positive reviews are still praising how easy it is to use, and they still recognize the maintenance effort the developers have put in over the years. This looks much more like a loss of community trust than a failure of the software itself.

If you only use it as a wallpaper tool, the purchase decision is still fairly simple. For people who want to subscribe to wallpapers, swap dynamic desktop backgrounds, and do it with minimal friction, Wallpaper Engine remains one of the best options on Steam. But if you used it specifically for the Workshop's more tool-like, application-focused side, this closure is a very real rollback in functionality. Criticizing that is fair, and pretending nothing changed would be dishonest.

What matters next is not whether the negative-review count keeps climbing, but whether the developers can offer a more credible replacement. Players have seen this kind of blunt fix before: it is always the easiest move, and almost never the most popular one. A better answer would be tighter safeguards, not removing the section outright.

43/78. 3/34. 3/41. 09/59.