A handful of "adult" themed game developers have received emails from Valve, requesting that the games either remove supposed content that goes against Steam's TOS, or be removed from the Steam Store entirely. HuniePop, Mutiny!!!, and The Stargazers, according to Valve, have been reported by unnamed users for "pornographic content", and are to be pulled from sale within 2 weeks if changes are not made. By technicality, none of the Steam versions of these games have such content, as it had to be censored to make it onto Steam initially. HuniePop itself, is a game that has been unchanged and sold on Steam since 2015, selling over 500,000 copies, yet it has not faced removal concerns until now. There are uncensor patches hosted offsite, but unless Steam has quietly changed its TOS, then these games met needed requirements already.

With such a claim being made years after the fact, it brings into question what content Valve considers too "racy" to allow on their digital storefront, and what games will be further removed. Two of the affected developers, HuniePot and Lupiesoft have spoken about their issue on Twitter, stating that their games "follow Steam's guidelines...we were told [by Valve] ecchi content was fine on Steam.". Lupiesoft goes on to say that this could potentially jeopardize the company, and that Steam's targeting of their games is unfair, due to a large content of western games having similar, if not more nudity.

What are your thoughts? Is this kind of removal wrong? What do you think has prompted Valve to only now take action?

We've just received some troubling news today that @steam_games has decided to pull down our titled "Mutiny!!" within 2 weeks for 'reports of pornographic content'. Now those of you who know @Lupiesoft know that we don't put that on Steam, or advertise that content on Steam.

— Lupiesoft (@Lupiesoft) May 18, 2018

- IMPORTANT NOTICE -
I've received an e-mail from Valve stating that HuniePop violates the rules & guidelines for pornographic content on Steam and will be removed from the store unless the game is updated to remove said content.

— Kyu Sugardust (@HunieKyu) May 17, 2018

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EDIT:

• Nekopara's developer's game, "Tropical Liquor" has also received an email requesting that the game be censored, or removed.
• Kindred Spirits has been notified.
• Battle Girls and Galaxy Girls has been notified.
• Re:Lord 1 has been notified.
• Roommates has been notified.

UPDATE 2: As of May 19, all developers that received this warning email from Valve, have all gotten a follow up email stating that emails about imminent removal of their games was sent out by mistake, to disregard the warning, and that the games will be re-reviewed immediately to make sure the games do indeed meet requirements to stay on the Steam Storefront.

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[Scarlet]

Eh, it's easy to cry censorship, but with something like this, it's probably more a case of "it's ok, just not here." Like you see shops selling sex toys. There's nothing wrong with that kinda thing, but you wouldn't expect to see it in a supermarket now would you? The real issue was allowing them to be sold on the storefront in the first place. If there were specific terms against it in their TOS, they should've been enforced from the start.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

guys, publishing a game on steam isn't a right, its a privilege.
if they notice games they don't want in some form on their platform, publishers have to fall in line, or publish somewhere else

There's a big problem with this kind of logic. Valve isn't doing anyone favors by letting them have their games on Steam. Developers have to pay to get their games on Steam and Valve probably takes a cut of the revenue made from game sales. Saying that it's a privilege to have your game on Steam when you pay them is like saying you're not entitled to a TV or Internet service that you pay for. Would you not have a problem if your ISP shut off your Internet even though you pay for it?

Little man vs a mega corporation with basically monopoly in the business...yeah good luck

The size of a business doesn't mean theyllt win a lawsuit. Look at the patent infringement suits Nintendo lost.

 

[FAST6191]

Scene Valve.
Alright lads we need to improve the image of our platform. There are no wrong answers.
How about we have a quality focused list of games that is well curated, and push the results of that in most places?
How about we allow people to resell games easily rather than telling them that nobody would want old digital copies of games.
How about we cater to a few whiners that someone might see a nipple?

The first two are too much like work, and we have an effective monopoly so why would we do the second.
Option number 3 it is then.

Everyone here seems to miss the point that Valve runs a private storefront and can do as they please in relation to content guidelines, especially in defense of a public image. What I think Valve is doing here is stupid, those games were approved for the storefront years ago, it's a blatant breach of trust to later take them down. But it's not censorship. Censorship would be a governing body outright banning certain games or media from being produced. A storefront has the prerogative to refuse to sell games with certain content, that's not censorship. Developers can just as easily take their game and sell it elsewhere. Steam has great influence, so obviously that's gonna hurt developers, but it's not censorship.

Did anybody doubt that before you posted that?
Depending upon your definitions then censorship may rest with those enacting and enforcing laws of a land, I would argue it does not, but the notion and/or philosophy that underpins its opposition does not.

Either the step is mere bureaucracy to meet the most prudent of prudents*

For the record to be prudent is to plan ahead/consider the future ramifications of actions, to be prudish is to be unsettled by matters sexual.

 

[gamesquest1]

maybe they should just rename a small string and push that update back and tell em they censored it xD
unbelieveable... are we living in stoneage? i wonder who anonymously informed them... must be a damn poor guy/girl.... lol

we all know what kinds of people go out of their way to pressure companies to bow at their moral doogoodery, and 9/10 they eventually get exposed as complete hypocrites who were just trying to blame their own moral short coming on others so they don't have to just accept that people are flawed....its not their fault they are flawed its all because they had the choice, if we could only do away with free will everything would be a perfect utopia

 

[VitaType]

The size of a business doesn't mean theyllt win a lawsuit. Look at the patent infringement suits Nintendo lost.

I even would argue that if they would have a monopoly it would make a lawsuit abit easier then it would be if they hasn't (and they haven't, clearly number one in there market but Origin and the Ubisoft store play a role, abit at least) since e.g. you more easy get help from NGOs and due to special laws for monopolys.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

**** censorship.

Fixed!!!

 

[VitaType]

Fixed!!!

Beginner...

Thanks for the glorious censorship that holds our minds and souls clean and strong. Steam you're a blessing to humankind. — DarthDub's reaction to the glorious steam cleaning of 2018

 

[Dr.Hacknik]

And the point of it being marked as 'Adult' content on your store, Valve... Means have it removed?

Valve is so stupid sometimes. The point of having the classification of 'Adult' content without censorship; is because it's meant for 18+.

 

[Astral_]

As long as the games follow the law where they're sold I don't agree with censorship. It's just another stupid double standard. A lot of fan service or porn in a game? That's a bad thing for some reason. Nudity in something people complaining like? Suddenly it's art and it's good.

I know that's not what Valve is saying, but it rubs me the wrong way all the same.

This.

I bought Bayonetta when it was released, it is tagged both as 'Nudity' (which is defendable) and 'Anime' (what??).
Instantly my Steam homepage was plagued with crappy generic anime VNs/RPGs. I blocked both tags to preserve my sanity, and I risk missing out interesting games if people go on with the bad tags.

 

[Taleweaver]

For the record to be prudent is to plan ahead/consider the future ramifications of actions, to be prudish is to be unsettled by matters sexual.

Wait...what?

...

Ouch!


and here I was thinking I knew a bit of English....

 

[Clydefrosch]

There's a big problem with this kind of logic. Valve isn't doing anyone favors by letting them have their games on Steam. Developers have to pay to get their games on Steam and Valve probably takes a cut of the revenue made from game sales. Saying that it's a privilege to have your game on Steam when you pay them is like saying you're not entitled to a TV or Internet service that you pay for. Would you not have a problem if your ISP shut off your Internet even though you pay for it?

The size of a business doesn't mean theyllt win a lawsuit. Look at the patent infringement suits Nintendo lost.

are you for real? they pay valve to sell their game on their service and just by being on steam, they quadruple their game sales and get that money back (if the game has any kind of reason to be released at all)

they dont have to put their game on steam if they dont want to. they want to. cause steam offers them a plus they wouldn't otherwise get.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

And the point of it being marked as 'Adult' content on your store, Valve... Means have it removed?

Valve is so stupid sometimes. The point of having the classification of 'Adult' content without censorship; is because it's meant for 18+.

thats so stupid. adult means there are games meant not for underage players. that doesn't mean there are no rules anymore at that point.

 

[MasterJ360]

Having played Mutiny in both non/censored the devs will literally have to water down the game to the point it has nothing sexual related. It's a game driven by sexual fanservice.
Censoring a game that's already censored... that just means they want the game removed

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Everyone here seems to miss the point that Valve runs a private storefront and can do as they please in relation to content guidelines, especially in defense of a public image. What I think Valve is doing here is stupid, those games were approved for the storefront years ago, it's a blatant breach of trust to later take them down. But it's not censorship. Censorship would be a governing body outright banning certain games or media from being produced. A storefront has the prerogative to refuse to sell games with certain content, that's not censorship. Developers can just as easily take their game and sell it elsewhere. Steam has great influence, so obviously that's gonna hurt developers, but it's not censorship.

I, and a lot of other people would consider it censorship. You are censoring stuff by removing what you consider to be inappropriate. It doesn't have to be done by some person with authority to be censorship when censorship is the act of censoring something.

About the private storefront thing I'll repeat what I said before. Developers pay to have their games on Steam. Valve isn't just letting them sell games on Steam out of the goodness of their heart. They charge people to publish games there. Would it be okay for an ISP or TV service to stop you from using your internet or cable that you paid for?

are you for real? they pay valve to sell their game on their service and just by being on steam, they quadruple their game sales and get that money back (if the game has any kind of reason to be released at all)

they dont have to put their game on steam if they dont want to. they want to. cause steam offers them a plus they wouldn't otherwise get.

My point is that Valve isn't letting people publish out of kindness. They're making money off of games being put on Steam so it's wrong for them to take down games that comply with the guidelines. If the games have had pornographic sex scenes removed then they aren't violating the rule against pornographic material being published on Steam. It doesn't matter how many extra sales the games are getting, that doesn't change the fact that the developers are still paying the game to be on Steam. You said that it's a privilege to have the game on Steam. Once developers are paying for the game the game to be on Steam I think it's more than a privilege. Would it be okay for your ISP to shut off your Internet service because they don't like you using GBAtemp even though you pay for the service even though you're not violating any rules?

And why would a game need a reason to be released? A game doesn't need to justify it's existence, it's an artistic expression as well as a product designed to make money. There's no reason something a group of people created shouldn't be released because some pissy moronic prudes are offended by it or because some jackasses don't like it. That's like bitching about a game having fanservice. Yeah some games sell based on that, but there are a lot of games that have being graphically violent as a selling point or major feature when they could just as easily be less violent. There are shows on HBO that have graphic violence and/or nudity and seem to highlight it a lot even though it's not completely necessary.

Eh, it's easy to cry censorship, but with something like this, it's probably more a case of "it's ok, just not here." Like you see shops selling sex toys. There's nothing wrong with that kinda thing, but you wouldn't expect to see it in a supermarket now would you? The real issue was allowing them to be sold on the storefront in the first place. If there were specific terms against it in their TOS, they should've been enforced from the start.

The games aren't violating the TOS because any pornographic scenes have been removed. If they have a problem with fan service then they should also remove Senran Kagura, they should remove Oblivion because there's a texture for bare breasts in the game (not fan service but still nudity), and other games with similar content. You can have sex in the Fable games so Fable The Lost Chapters and Fable Anniversary so I guess if anything remotely sexual is the issue those games need to be removed too. In Skyrim you can see the statue of Dibella's nipples so I guess Skyrim should be removed too.

 

[Jonna]

Eh, it's easy to cry censorship, but with something like this, it's probably more a case of "it's ok, just not here." Like you see shops selling sex toys. There's nothing wrong with that kinda thing, but you wouldn't expect to see it in a supermarket now would you?

Actually, Spencers has sex toys and lingerie available to see and it's located in the local mall where any one can walk into it.

And even then, no one has complained, because there's a warning posted outside.

Steam, what's the problem?

 

[RedoLane]

so in a nutshell, Valve thinks games are made by a bunch of pervs :V
(not the best way to describe, but that's how it sounds for the most part)

 

[RedBlueGreen]

so in a nutshell, Valve thinks games are made by a bunch of pervs :V
(not the best way to describe, but that's how it sounds for the most part)

I think they're just trying to shut down anything controversial so it doesn't "hurt" their business even though that's damn near impossible. If fanservicey games are made by perverts then violent games are made by psychopaths.

 

[Nevermore]

It's hilarious, especially when stuff like Ladykiller in a Bind won't be removed because the video game journalists brigaded Steam to keep it uncensored. But now Steam wants to go after HuniePop, which is already super tame without the uncensored patch?

https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/8k8uv4/censorship_important_notice_from_huniedev/

 

[LightyKD]

I keep saying it over and over again, we need a Steam like service just for adult games. I'm about tired of the major platform holders being too scared to host adult material.

 

[Dimensional]

It feels like Valve is pulling a Youtube. Get a complaint, an automated system sends out the ban hammer, only it doesn't give the option of a manual review. Another company getting so big it has to create something so stupid to fill in the work of an intelligent human. I'm sure sooner or later a few other games will get the message about mature content when they have absolutely none.

 

[FAST6191]

I keep saying it over and over again, we need a Steam like service just for adult games. I'm about tired of the major platform holders being too scared to host adult material.

Why a service dedicated to it and not a general purpose service covering the lot?