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.

​

 

[LightyKD]

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

It's obvious why. People here in the "Puritanical States of America" still equate video games as a child's play thing instead a legit medium. If adult games are ever going to get their proper respect then they need their own service.

 

[Exaltys]

I think the bigger injustice is to keep getting the age verification prompt even though you're already logged in and Steam has your birthday.

Censorship bad blah blah blah. Heck, most of the game tagged "nudity" don't have nudity in them!

 

[FAST6191]

It's obvious why. People here in the "Puritanical States of America" still equate video games as a child's play thing instead a legit medium. If adult games are ever going to get their proper respect then they need their own service.

I would take the opposite approach. If you gate it off you essentially admit it should be gated off, and also allow it to be dismissed. Having as part and parcel of it allows it to stand and in turn sees more people able to figure out it is no big issue.

 

[AdamFX990]

Personally, I see this as a good thing. Its a small step towards better quality control. Pornographic games are pretty much guaranteed to be bad. Its not really censorship because they were violating the rules Valve already had in place. They didn't make the rule to remove these games.

 

[Exaltys]

I think the bigger injustice is to keep getting the age verification prompt even though you're already logged in and Steam has your birthday.

Censorship bad blah blah blah. Heck, most of the game tagged "nudity" don't have nudity in them!

 

[Clydefrosch]

1. 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?

2. And why would a game need a reason to be released?

1. no one argued that's what valve does. but paying valve to use their service does not mean the publishers don't have to abide by any ToS or any random guidelines valve feels like they want to implement. certainly, they all signed an agreement giving valve the right to remove games for whatever reason.
it still remains a privilege because just as publishers dont have to deal with valve, valve doesn't have to deal with a publisher.

my isp is well within their right to kick me out whenever they feel like it, however, at that point, i'd have a few rights too, such as getting a refund for fees paid in advance. and if they want to change our contract to include a 'we can throw you out for visiting certain websites' rule, I'd have the right to null any previous agreement and take my business elsewhere.

2. i mean that as in the game has to be good. a good game will make back steam fees. if it sucks, of course, it wont get many sales no matter what.

 

[Xzi]

It's obvious why. People here in the "Puritanical States of America" still equate video games as a child's play thing instead a legit medium. If adult games are ever going to get their proper respect then they need their own service.

I mean, there are games for adults, and then there are "adult" games. The latter are never going to see a ton of critical acclaim, just as PornHub never receives an Oscar. I still think they should be available to people, of course, but a service catering exclusively to those games would probably do very poorly.

 

[kuwanger]

I still think they should be available to people, of course, but a service catering exclusively to those games would probably do very poorly.

Yea, MangaGamer is basically that service. Found out about it because one of those various game bundle sites was offering some anime/manga visual novels and they weren't on Steam because they were "adult". Since I basically already hate 99% of visual novels, that was a great sign not to get the bundle or ever buy anything from MangaGamer. I think that's the real point of it: make it so you can't really advertise a website or acknowledge you buy from website X because it's so synonymous with porn/hentai that even if 50% of their catalog was no worse than most "adult" games (just more condensed and without the violence/gore), you can't shake the stigma.

So, yea, can't have Steam offering up games like that. Then people wouldn't know what they're getting into and might be shocked and think Steam is a different sort of service. Nothing crazy about that...because a lot of fan service is definitely more shocking than someone having their head cut off with a chainsaw.

 

[Xzi]

So, yea, can't have Steam offering up games like that. Then people wouldn't know what they're getting into and might be shocked and think Steam is a different sort of service. Nothing crazy about that...because a lot of fan service is definitely more shocking than someone having their head cut off with a chainsaw.

It is Valve's service, so they can exclude what they want from it, but I agree that it's ridiculous how much we as Americans glorify violence yet shun sexuality.

 

[the_randomizer]

Man, if I actually cared about those games, I'd be outraged.

 

[kuwanger]

It is Valve's service, so they can exclude what they want from it

The thing is, it's sort of nonsensical to suggest that Value "wants" to exclude much of anything from their service. They're just being manipulated into excluding things from their service. Sometimes it's trashy, racist games. Sometimes it's over the top fan service games. At a practical level, though, Steam is a business and without manipulation and the implicit threat of boycotts, the only real concern they have is if the game makes enough money to justify the hosting costs. Really, Google Play has spam levels of content and they don't regularly delist things--one could argue a few orders of magnitude less is true with Steam. So, yea, I don't think it's something Steam wants.

Man, if I actually cared about those games, I'd be outraged.

Basically I feel the same way, but that's sadly the way in which things get censored--whether it's the effective censorship by business or the legal censorship by government. The precedent is set, so we can just grin and bare it when it's next blasphemy against God or violence against religious leaders. Or whatever else some special interest group can manage to lobby through the Steam system.

Sure, you can still technically buy the games, but unless you're Rockstar/EA/etc you're not likely to be able to run your own store front and mostly maintain your sales if Steam delists you. In the long term, future games are likely to be lost out to competitors who aren't delisted unless you manage to make your own store a general success. The point isn't to necessarily make the games unavailable. It's to effectively punish businesses beyond simple market forces to strongly discourage that business or other businesses to create such products.

If you're a believer in the free market or at least the free exchange of ideas, that's reason enough to feel outrage when a tiny minority is manipulating the discussion.

 

[the_randomizer]

The thing is, it's sort of nonsensical to suggest that Value "wants" to exclude much of anything from their service. They're just being manipulated into excluding things from their service. Sometimes it's trashy, racist games. Sometimes it's over the top fan service games. At a practical level, though, Steam is a business and without manipulation and the implicit threat of boycotts, the only real concern they have is if the game makes enough money to justify the hosting costs. Really, Google Play has spam levels of content and they don't regularly delist things--one could argue a few orders of magnitude less is true with Steam. So, yea, I don't think it's something Steam wants.

Basically I feel the same way, but that's sadly the way in which things get censored--whether it's the effective censorship by business or the legal censorship by government. The precedent is set, so we can just grin and bare it when it's next blasphemy against God or violence against religious leaders. Or whatever else some special interest group can manage to lobby through the Steam system.

Sure, you can still technically buy the games, but unless you're Rockstar/EA/etc you're not likely to be able to run your own store front and mostly maintain your sales if Steam delists you. In the long term, future games are likely to be lost out to competitors who aren't delisted unless you manage to make your own store a general success. The point isn't to necessarily make the games unavailable. It's to effectively punish businesses beyond simple market forces to strongly discourage that business or other businesses to create such products.

If you're a believe in the free market or at least the free exchange of ideas, that's reason enough to feel outrage when a tiny minority is manipulating the discussion.

I feel ambivalent about this particular issue, TBH.

 

[kuwanger]

I feel ambivalent about this particular issue, TBH.

Yea, at some level I feel the same way. Intellectually I'm outraged. Emotionally, I fell like I did when they removed the racist/transphobic/etc crap--pretty ambivalent. Personally, I know I can't rely upon emotion alone to know when something is wrong.

 

[FAST6191]

Personally, I see this as a good thing. Its a small step towards better quality control. Pornographic games are pretty much guaranteed to be bad. Its not really censorship because they were violating the rules Valve already had in place. They didn't make the rule to remove these games.

End justifies the means you say?

Man, if I actually cared about those games, I'd be outraged.

You said similar such things in last few threads dealing with similar matters.
Is the principle alone not something worth having?

 

[Chary]

Huniepop at the very least probably has generated a lot of money, seeing as its sold a lot of copies. I utterly would not mind if these types of games were removed from Steam tomorrow, but then at the same time...

These games were given absolute confirmation from Valve that they followed Steam's TOS. Not only that, but Valve is being entirely vague about WHAT exactly about these games specifically needs to be removed to comply again. It's just a scummy move from Valve to allow these games for years, and then with no warning or public change to their TOS, just magically say they need to be gone asap.

 

[the_randomizer]

End justifies the means you say?


You said similar such things in last few threads dealing with similar matters.
Is the principle alone not something worth having?

No, I just have no interest in having adult material, i.e pornographic material, in my games. How does it make these games any better with it? I genuinely want to know.
Yes, censoring things unnecessarily (like cultural differences, calling onigiri "jelly donuts" or changing Yen to dollars, etc). This kind of censorship doesn't bother me at all.
I'm not a fan of this genre of games, either, and if people can't accept that I'm okay with this kind of censorship, that's too freakin bad. But Valve should have pointing out
these issues beforehand, and not a long time after and become suddenly douchey.

 

[kuwanger]

Let's imagine that in a lot of cultures, there was a taboo about talking about yellow dogs. There's plenty of myths on the why, but it's considered something like a curse. So, everyone uses flowery language to get around it and incorporate yellow dogs in their stories. Other people even fetishize the taboo and try to come up with reasons yellow dogs must be in their stories/movies/games--never shown by always implied. Imagine the shock to, in real life, see a yellow dog?

That's basically 99% of what this is to me. It's not about addressing any meaningful issue. It's all about perpetuating the taboo. I think intrisically there's always going to be some taboo about sex like there is about violence. I don't think that's a bad thing. I do think it's insane how it's ratcheted up to 11 by some people.

No, I just have no interest in having adult material, i.e pornographic material, in my games. How does it make these games any better with it? I genuinely want to know.

I don't think we need to glamorize people take a shit in the toilet, but it happens. Excluding it from books, movies, and games entirely creates a warped view of reality. Or really the converse, you need to include it some times to make your book, movie, or game seem realistic. Things that are pornographic happen in real life. At some level, gratuitous inclusion is a necessity.

 

[Garblant]

Porn content isn't allowed on Steam? Why? It has this funny "if you pass here you will see sexual characteristics - clearly and uncensored!"-button isn't that enough to keep me safe from this crap? I really wished the US just could overcome there extreme uptightness with everything porn and nudity related . You can buy Hatred on there site, come on, steam can't be serious about this, right? (and yes, HuniePop is porn. Watch the promo video of this game to the very end. We could argue about the other two games though)

Check's out Hatred on Steam

WHAT THE FU-

I guess the funny thing is that they're so desensitized to violence that games like this can be on the platform, but if a title is really "pervy" then it can potentially get removed from the platform, even if it's been on sale for several years...

Hunie pop isn't even uncensored by default, you have to add a file yourself to uncensor it, so it should be fine. With all of the titles that contain even worse content, and aren't uncensored by default, you'd think they'd be okay with a game of this nature.

 

[p1ngpong]

Good, this trash should have never been on the steam storefront to begin with.

Any people up in arms over this move in this thread are obvious nintendo switch owners who don't know what real games are. Go and get your perverted kicks from the darkweb, normal playstation/xbox/pc gamers don't want to see your seedy little pervert simulators in their online game stores.

Arrest anyone with these games in their steam library and throw the key away in my opinion.

Disgusting.

 

[FAST6191]

Good, this trash should have never been on the steam storefront to begin with.

Any people up in arms over this move in this thread are obvious nintendo switch owners who don't know what real games are. Go and get your perverted kicks from the darkweb, normal playstation/xbox/pc gamers don't want to see your seedy little pervert simulators in their online game stores.

Arrest anyone with these games in their steam library and throw the key away in my opinion.

Disgusting.

Have you seen ur mum's game collection of late?

No, I just have no interest in having adult material, i.e pornographic material, in my games. How does it make these games any better with it? I genuinely want to know.
Yes, censoring things unnecessarily (like cultural differences, calling onigiri "jelly donuts" or changing Yen to dollars, etc). This kind of censorship doesn't bother me at all.
I'm not a fan of this genre of games, either, and if people can't accept that I'm okay with this kind of censorship, that's too freakin bad. But Valve should have pointing out
these issues beforehand, and not a long time after and become suddenly douchey.

So you are upset about basic localisation choices but ... what kuwanger said.