Apparent Steam crackdown on Ecchi

[Serifyn]

Steam is apparently going after a bunch of Adult/Ecchi content on their platform, i know a few people from here have made it a bit of a business model to translate Hentai and put it on Steam but according to this 'Lupiesoft', Steam has done an apparent 180 on this despite prior reassurances, games with 'reports of pornographic content' are being warned that their games will be taken down if the content isn't further censored. I don't know how this effects games such as Melty's quest which is clearly pornographic in nature yet requires an uncensor patch to unlock it's content. This is a disturbing turn but not too unexpected, it is a reminder that there are plenty of people who are still coming for Adult games on mainstream platforms such as Steam and Patreon, while it would certainly be nice to see a proliferation of adult games into the mainstream, societal trends and conventional wisdom tells me that a renewed moral puritanism in the west will continue to manifest itself whenever we get close.

Lupiesoft --

We've just received some troubling news today that

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has decided to pull down our titled "Mutiny!!" within 2 weeks for 'reports of pornographic content'. Now those of you who know

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know that we don't put that on Steam, or advertise that content on Steam.
In fact

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has been one of the strictest developers in terms of following Steam's guidelines, and absolutely nothing in Mutiny!! violates their guidelines. After our Steam publisher

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met with Valve in person, they were told that ecchi content was fine on steam.
It seems this new change violates what Valve agreed to before, and the entirety of the Visual Novel genre on Steam is feeling the effects of this nuclear option. Every developer big & small, no matter how much they followed Steam's guidelines to the letter is having games pulled.
From Huniepop, to SonoHanabira, to Mutiny!!, the message is clear, if your game has sexy anime-inspired art in it, get it gone, while western games which are 100x more pornographic content escape unscathed. One rule for them, and no rules for us.
If you care about these games, please spread the word, let it be known this is not okay. Nothing 'wrong' was done. Everything that

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did in regards to Mutiny!! was fully agreed to by Steam, on behalf of

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before we even did it, as did many other devs.
This puts

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in a bad situation. while funding for

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is secure, Mutiny!! was our biggest title, this threatens our future when a platform like

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can decide on a whim to just pull our games even when we follow their guidelines.
This is not normal, this is not okay. Games are being pulled simply because they look a certain way and there is a stigma behind the look of a game. In the future this could easily extend to anyone who even makes visual novels no matter how 'sexy' they might appear to be.
We are not sleazebags making horrific pornography, we're a strongly queer VN studio that makes sexy games, that is not wrong, that is not pornographic, nudity is also not wrong as a massive amount of Steam's library has nudity, and Mutiny!! follows those content guidelines!
This threatens the future livelihood of any developer even wanting to work on Visual Novels in the future, this threatens the very fabric of the medium itself, when THE largest sales platform can just pull your game without justification or reason at any moment. Speak up.

 

[mayaktheunholy]

Update on this, it appears to have been automated takedown notices caused by an unknown party mass-reporting the affected games. Most of the affected developers have received notices from Steam saying either to ignore the warning (if their game was previously examined) or that their game will be reviewed. A certain religious group masquerading as a left-wing feminist group has claimed responsibility for the notices, but it is not clear whether they were actually behind it. In other words, this was not an internal decision or policy change by Steam.

On a humorous note, whoever is responsible has probably only increased sales of the affected games, so thus far their plan has backfired spectacularly.

EDIT: I would suggest having this moved to the hentai games section so it is more visible.

 

[Bryanis]

Look like another witch hunt...
However it's probably true that the increase of ecchi / H game on steam must lead to more report on adult content when you see how easy it is to access to adult content on steam when you're under aged (also caused by a lack of vigilance ... from the parents).

But if it's a witch hunt, as long as it's made by mass reporting like that, it probably won't stop steam (unless it's done non stop to overload steam staff with work).

Just a bit of ads for this kind of work ^^

(Which is a relief, at first I was afraid steam would be going backward, maybe toward removing adult content from his offer)

 

[Keep]

On a humorous note, whoever is responsible has probably only increased sales of the affected games, so thus far their plan has backfired spectacularly.

EDIT: I would suggest having this moved to the hentai games section so it is more visible.

Ah, the classic "Obama facilitated gun sales" approach.
And i do agree, the thread is pretty invisible in here.

 

[XziebertX]

Update on this, it appears to have been automated takedown notices caused by an unknown party mass-reporting the affected games. Most of the affected developers have received notices from Steam saying either to ignore the warning (if their game was previously examined) or that their game will be reviewed. A certain religious group masquerading as a left-wing feminist group has claimed responsibility for the notices, but it is not clear whether they were actually behind it. In other words, this was not an internal decision or policy change by Steam.

On a humorous note, whoever is responsible has probably only increased sales of the affected games, so thus far their plan has backfired spectacularly.

EDIT: I would suggest having this moved to the hentai games section so it is more visible.

so... this whole mess was caused by some'party' that haet anime tiddies?

 

[mayaktheunholy]

Update on this from steam themselves:

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[Serifyn]

Great news

 

[GEMPAL00]

This just in, i got it from my steam group. Apparently it's happening again from the same organization

https://twitter.com/ncose/status/1013142125511397377

(Copy paste the link on the browser, because it seems our forum couldn't directly redirect to said link)

Another reading material :

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[Keep]

This just in, i got it from my steam group. Apparently it's happening again from the same organization

https://twitter.com/ncose/status/1013142125511397377

Another reading material :

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first: the twitter link doesn't exactly work.

about the 2nd link, i copy-pasted the (most) interesting part:

With over 35 million minors that use the platform, Steam’s lack of substantial age barriers and filters provides children easy access to games that glorify rape and other sexually predative behaviors. In fact, videogames transform the user from a passive bystander to an active participant in the violent scene. Pornographic and sexually violent videogames are molding children’s attitudes and behaviors, and Steam should be held accountable for this harmful neglect of children’s online protection.

Recently,

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contacted several videogame developers asking them to remove sexually graphic content in their games or face delisting. After receiving heavy backlash from the gamer community, Steam stepped back and began to rescind these call for removal and instituted a new “allow everything” policy which would even allow games based on themes of sexual assault!

Some people would call it a sign of the times that in their eyes Steam should be held accountable for the upbringing of children nowadays :thinking:

 

[Bryanis]

Yeah, well, that shit goes around everywhere.
Preventing children to access theses content ? They have to enter date of birth after warning that the game contain sexual and / or gore to say "yes, I'm of age to look at it".

How does they would have STEAM preventing it ? Asking user to send a copy of their ID ? illegal in most country.
No, what they want is just stopping such work to simply exist by manipulating public opinion... Sadly, there at least 1 historical precedent about stupid people forcing a stupid change - alcohol prohibition in the US...

Instead of attacking other, they should focus on properly teaching the children what is appropriate and have a good talk to when they misbehave or get into contact with adult related content by mistake.

 

[GEMPAL00]

We can't deny the fact that steam recently put quite alot on board some adult games. I really hope that this wont make matter worse as it would ban steam for some people to access, as some certain country really have strict policy about internet content and blocking any adult material to be accessed from internet.

@Keep, for the twitter link, it seems you have to copy paste the link into your browser, because the forum couldn't directly redirect it. weird.