PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor praised the Starsand Island demo in December 2025, while Lauren Morton called it "the first can't-miss cozy game of 2026" in February. The game is currently unavailable on Steam due to the developer, Seed Sparkle Lab, using unauthorized visual elements from a classic title in their mini-game section. They apologized for this oversight and are working on a new build to remove the contentious content. Fans speculate the classic title might be Tetris, but this is unconfirmed. Seed Sparkle has decided to temporarily delist Starsand Island and will reward current owners with the "Shining Star" outfit set once the revised version is approved. Players' progress will remain intact. The studio is enhancing its internal review processes following this incident and a previous wave of fake positive user reviews. A specific return date for the game on Steam has not been disclosed, but it is still available on the Xbox Store.