Valve Threatens Popular Erotic Games on Steam with Take down Warnings

Some of the games have been on Steam for years.

By Anne Lee

The developers of several popular erotic games on Steam have received warnings from Valve that they must censor the adult content in their games or they will be removed, according to tweets from those developers.

Most notably, developer HuniePot was issued a warning regarding their extremely popular erotic romance visual novel/puzzle game, HuniePop. According to their Twitter, the notice indicated 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.”

Developers of many other games, including Mutiny!!, Re;Lord 1, Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Tropical Liquor, and VR Kanojo, all appear to have received similar statements, which effectively amount to a take down warning notice from Valve. Mutiny!! developer Lupiesoft said on Twitter their warning was issued due to “reports of pornographic content.”

What all of these games have in common is that they are romance-focused, Japanese or Japan-inspired games with erotic or suggestive content. Lupiesoft notes, however, that they have been very rigorous about making sure their releases adhere to Steam’s guidelines. Some of the games listed, such as Mutiny!!, have patches available outside of Steam that add uncensored content, but are not advertised on the platform.

MangaGamer, publisher of Kindred Spirits on the Roof, had this to say on their blog:

“As you may recall from our own announcements and coverage in several news outlets, we and many others in the industry considered the release of Kindred Spirits unaltered on the platform a positive shift in the treatment of tasteful, mature content on the platform. We stand by our assertion then that content of the game is not pornographic, but an earnest and tasteful exploration of sexuality.”

This sudden and sweeping action is surprising to many, as games like Kindred Spirits on the Roof and HuniePop have been on Steam for many years. However, more recent titles such as Re;Lord 1 have also been targeted, which was released in March of this year.

We’ve reached out to Valve for comment and will update this story when they respond.

Anne Lee is a freelance writer and translator with a deep love for otome games. You can find her writing about all things cute and nerdy from Japan at Chic-Pixel.com and her Twitter.

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