The Super Seducer series has been having a hard time lately. The controversial series comes from professional pick-up artist Richard La Ruina, and acts as an interactive instruction manual for men to be successful with women. While the first two games in the series, both released in 2018, drew heavy criticism for the moral questions surrounding its premise, their releases were relatively uneventful (aside from a planned release on the Playstation 4 that was pulled shortly before release). The third game, initially set for release February 15th, has been plagued with issues.

The first sign of trouble was on February 3rd, during Steam's Game Festival promotion, where indie developers were allowed to release demos that would only be available for a limited time. Super Seducer 3's time was more limited than expected, however, as the demo was unceremoniously pulled only an hour after going up. Then, on February 11, Steam rejected the submitted build, citing the sexual imagery featuring live-action actors. (While plenty of explicit games can be found on Steam, they all feature animated characters rather than real people.) Since then, La Ruina has been censoring those scenes and resubmitting to Steam, before receiving a third and final rejection today, as Steam has totally banned the game from its storefront.

The game's future at this point is uncertain. La Ruina stated shortly before the ban that alternate storefronts (specifically, Epic Games Store and GOG) had rejected it, and that other methods were "not very attractive." Since the ban, however, he has stated he will have something ready for this week, and that the version he is aiming to release will be the original, fully uncensored version. The first two games were also expected to release on the Nintendo Switch in February of this year, with the third given a tentative date of late 2021, though that date came and went with no release, and only a brief mention from La Ruina that the release was still on track. He has also mentioned he may work on a similar branching path, FMV series focused on the horror genre, tentatively titled "Horror Seducer."

GBAtemp was lucky enough to receive a censored version of Super Seducer 3 for review prior to its initially projected release date. If you'd like to see exactly how bad the censored version (which has also been submitted to and rejected by Valve), you can read or watch our review here.

Steam have BANNED and removed Super Seducer 3 from the store. They will not allow it to be released in any form.

Our page is gone and 61,700 wish lists are gone.

Prior to this they told me expect either “approval or feedback”.
We repeatedly said we’d do whatever they needed pic.twitter.com/hVuDcvzL2n

— Richard La Ruina (@RichardGambler) March 20, 2021

 

[leon315]

I'm more surprised that over 60,000 people wishlisted it.

yep, 60k incels wish to learn how to talk to ladies from this game.

And i gonna buy 1st 2 games to support this dev.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

This is getting dumb. Didn't steam make a public statement about "only banning games that break laws or is only meant to troll" ? Now they just ignoring their own guidelines and doing whatever they feel like again... or is someone else holding them hostage?

Is less about the personal opinions individuals have about the game and more about how confusing it is for people to be told one thing and see another. Is contradictory. Almost like someone is intentionally trying to block it. They need to make clear rules and guidelines and HONOR THEIR OWN STATEMENTS! No one should have to submit a game THREE TIMES only to be rejected all three and just say "Strike three you're out!"

 

[Veho]

Would it be surprising if they were very deliberately hitting the wrong buttons here in order to generate free publicity? "The game that was too hot for Steam!" would make for a fine selling point.

THE GAME HOTTER THAN STEAM!
THE GAME TOO EPIC FOR EPIC GAME STORE!
THE GAME TOO GOOD FOR GOOD OLD GAMES!
THE TRUTH IS OUT!
FIND OUT THE SECRETS TO SEDUCTION THAT THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW!

 

[1B51004]

so when are they going to get rid of the $5 anime shooter games that look as bad as they play?

 

[LightBeam]

Honestly the game looks fun and the main actor is really a cool guy, it looks like he's honestly into Internet stuff and sometimes it's really funny. I don't think he deserves that.
Tho I wouldn't buy it, I'll just watch a youtuber doing it but it's still looks wayyyy better than any random anime shooter using free 3D assets. There was actually some work behind Super Seducer 2 and 3

 

[ChaosEternal]

While I can't say that the game sounds all that entertaining, it's a shame to see the major online storefronts rejecting it. Although they obviously have the right to do so, I prefer to see censorship kept to an absolute minimum. Just because the legal right to free speech hasn't been violated does not mean that the principle of free speech hasn't been. The 1st amendment enshrines the principle; it does not create it. I hope that he is able to find an effective way to release it, preferably in an unaltered state.

 

[BlazeMasterBM]

This is getting dumb. Didn't steam make a public statement about "only banning games that break laws or is only meant to troll" ? Now they just ignoring their own guidelines and doing whatever they feel like again... or is someone else holding them hostage?

Is less about the personal opinions individuals have about the game and more about how confusing it is for people to be told one thing and see another. Is contradictory. Almost like someone is intentionally trying to block it. They need to make clear rules and guidelines and HONOR THEIR OWN STATEMENTS! No one should have to submit a game THREE TIMES only to be rejected all three and just say "Strike three you're out!"

yeah... well companies (Facebook, Twitter) have found that they can basically remove whatever they want and nobody can really stop them. So we're heading down a scary path.

 

[grey72]

The possibility of the world not getting a third dunkey super seducer video is the real tragedy here.

 

[Xzi]

LMAO some content screener at Valve was like, "no real women! Only anime pussy allowed on Steam!"

 

[FAST6191]

So the mask slips.

As mentioned above Steam did declare a while back the end of their censorious ways ( https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-censorship https://gbatemp.net/threads/update-...ir-content-or-face-removal-from-steam.504265/ ).

I did not believe it for a moment but I would have probably lost the bet on how long it would have taken, this being longer.

Would love to read whatever internal discussions, contacts provoking it or similar that caused it but I am not going to hold my breath for a leak of such things.

 

[Xzi]

So the mask slips.

As mentioned above Steam did declare a while back the end of their censorious ways ( https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-censorship https://gbatemp.net/threads/update-...ir-content-or-face-removal-from-steam.504265/ ).

I did not believe it for a moment but I would have probably lost the bet on how long it would have taken, this being longer.

Would love to read whatever internal discussions, contacts provoking it or similar that caused it but I am not going to hold my breath for a leak of such things.

This seems more like a line being drawn in the sand by digital game distributors across the board. No live-action nudity, because none of them want to become known for that exclusively, and the sheer amount of porn which could quickly and easily be "gamified" would drown out all the actual games. The storefront is already littered enough as-is, with a new hentai game releasing seemingly every day.

 

[Holybond]

I feel like there's a reference at the end there that I'm not getting...

The reference with the light at the end refers to how Sony was censoring visual novels with the beam of light to cover certain areas that'd be considered "risqué".

 

[Silent_Gunner]

The reference with the light at the end refers to how Sony was censoring visual novels with the beam of light to cover certain areas that'd be considered "risqué".

Didn't they censor ME2's steamy scenes that way iirc?

 

[Deleted member 514389]

Inb4 eShop bwahaha

 

[xdarkx]

Even though I don't like this game series, I don't like the idea of the banning of the game. Should be up to the customer's decision on whether they want to buy the game or not. Not to mentioned, I don't believe the game broke any rules.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

I'm more surprised that over 60,000 people wishlisted it.

Bet its this guy's multiple alternate accounts, lmao

Why do they always have to ban and censor everything, the game is meant to be ironical/funny and it was made in agreement with consenting actresses. Next to it there are thousands of questionable hentai games available for purchase. Steam are huge hypocrites.

This is getting dumb. Didn't steam make a public statement about "only banning games that break laws or is only meant to troll" ?

Isn't this the latter, lol?

 

[osaka35]

nothing of value was lost.

it's not a "play as a kkk member" level of obviously evil, but it's more of a ludicrous level of "people thinking abusive behaviour is smexy".

it's hilarious, like the movie "the room", and for basically the same reasons. I get people wanting to play it for the lulz, but since it could be taken seriously by people who don't know better, i completely understand the move.

though tbh, I think a warning about its content and to not take any of it as real would have been far better...but that'd require actual work.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

yeah... well companies (Facebook, Twitter) have found that they can basically remove whatever they want and nobody can really stop them. So we're heading down a scary path.

I mean, yeah, that's kinda what you agree to when you sign up for the service, same applies to here

 

[CNYKnifeNut]

while I don't approuve that kind of stereotyped games, I disapprouve even more censorship
Nothing should ever be censored
Punished by criminal or civil law, yes, but censored no...
For exemple, there's an Ottawa's university's employee who called our prime minister a "White supremacist who intentionally killed black and native people in his hospital"
Should that be censored? no
Should that be punished? yes
NOTHING should be censored
We're not in China here

So you're against Steam banning a game (which is censorship in your mind, correct?), But all for a person being criminally punished for an opinion?

That's... Wow.

 

[Megadriver94]

It's like the "right to free speech on twitter" thing. It's not being censored or persecuted by the government, Steam is a private entity that can make its own decisions about what it wants to sell and be associated with. The creepy guy could sell the game independently from his website with no issues, but I'm assuming that's one of the options he describes as "not very attractive" (a phrase which, judging by his face, he's familiar with).

A platform is not the same as a publisher though. A publisher has more leeway as to what it does and does not allow to have. Platforms are supposed to be, for the most part, more open. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Tumblr, especially the former two ARE being very partial and in their censorship and banning of users that they personally consider to be "un-desirable" or "problematic" for their points of view. No, they did not ban just extreme right wing and what some would call "fashy" users, but also other people as well, mostly Republican and Libertarian-leaning users. Remember when Trump was being ""fact-Checked"" by Jack Dorsey and his yes-men of Twitter moderation? Yeah, because you should always trust Silicon Valley Admins and their right-hand men to be factual and impartial. NOT! Dorsey and that damn piece of trash Zuckerberg don't really care much, if at all about morals and facts in the long run. They have proven themselves to be control freaks under the guise of "security" and "safety". One's Free speech should not be regulated by private entities so stringently. At the same time, they do little, if anything, to people who share Child Porn aka "MAPS", as they like to address themselves.