The platform Steam is taking action against “Visual Novels” and games that are accused of containing pornographic content. Many of these games have been on Steam for years and are popular – that is likely to change.
Bejeweled with Pugs – since 2015 on Steam: Steam is targeting a very specific type of games in recent days. These are games like HuniePop – a typical “Match 3 Puzzle” game, so like Candy Crush or Bejeweled: Only in HuniePop you also interact with anime girls who are, let’s say, sexually liberated.
The developers of HuniePop received an email from Valve. The email tells them that their game violates the rules and guidelines for pornographic content on Steam and will be removed unless they upgrade their game so that these contents are no longer visible.
HuniePop has been on Steam since January 2015 and has over 10,000 reviews. Currently, the thumbs up is showing – the reviews are on average “Extremely Positive.”
Negotiated with Valve for weeks back then
Visual Novels no longer okay: But not only HuniePop is currently in trouble. Especially “Visual Novels” seem to have come under Steam’s crosshairs. They are also receiving such “Change it or we will delete it” messages from Valve. MangaGamer, which operates such Japanese Visual Novels on Steam, complains that this is now coming out of nowhere.
In the past, one would have engaged intensively with Steam to adjust the Visual Novels sufficiently so that they could remain on Steam. Valve would have worked with MangaGamer for several weeks back then and then granted its full approval and a guarantee, it is said.
Anime Purge: Apparently Valve has internally changed the parameters of what is still acceptable and what is already pornographic. Now anime girls are in danger. The developers are reacting with frustration to self-assurance.
In HuniePop, they speak of an “Anime Titty Holocaust” and show solidarity as other developers tweet that the nasty letter from Steam has arrived.
MangaGamer seems relatively unperturbed. They have set up their own store front, where they already distribute games that are so sexually explicit that they do not fit on Steam, they say to the site Motherboard.
Purge may have been canceled after all
Update 15:15: There seems to be movement in the matter. Some of the developers were contacted again by Steam. The new letter states that they should ignore the first email. They are now in the process of reviewing the games again and will get back in touch. Apparently, the first email with the warning and request for changes was sent prematurely.
