The Autumn Steam sale is well underway now, and accusations of foul play are already being thrown at some game studios for allegedly raising prices immediately before the start of the sale. This  keeps their games from actually being sold at lower prices while still ensuring that they receive the boost in attention from being advertised with the sale.

The increased prices were noticed by Steam analytics website Steam Spy, which tracks various user statistics on Steam such as game ownership, average playtime for individual games, the distribution of players by country, and so on.

Steam Spy called out several game developers on Twitter, saying, “A number of games increased their prices just before the Autumn Sale so they can offer a ‘discount’ during it. Again. Why is it allowed?”

The raw price data gathered by Steam Spy can be misleading, however, and some games can increase in price for various non-nefarious reasons. For example, many Steam Early Access games start out at a very low price when they are still lacking in features, but then their price increases as the games come closer to full release.

At least one of the games called out by Steam Spy, Epistory (pictured above), seems to be one such example, as the game recently received a major update along with its price increase.

“Please be aware that this update marks the end of our early bird pricing,” Epistory’s developer wrote in an announcement earlier this week, before the Steam sale began. “Epistory [will] now be fixed at $12.99 due to the major updates that have been done since launching on Early Access.”

Still, some of the other price increases look shady at best, and Steam owner Valve Corp may want to keep a close eye on how developers are pricing their games in anticipation for its sales. It is too early to tell if there will be any legal ramifications for any of the price increases, but some regulating bodies have been keeping a closer eye on Steam’s online game sales.

Earlier this month, for example, Valve received a slap on the wrist from the Advertising Standards Authority in the U.K. for listing Grand Theft Auto V in the Steam Summer sale when the game itself was not technically on sale.

Epistory screenshot courtesy of Fishing Cactus via Steam Store