The news is out! After several controversies in the past few weeks over content that will or will not be allowed on the Steam platform, we have now received a clear message from Valve that they will not be dictating what games are valid or not and will be focusing on giving users tools to filter out games that they are not interested in seeing.
Visual Novels and Anime Games
Around May 18th, a message was sent out to various developers of games such as "Mutiny!!" and "Huniepop" that they would have to remove any suggestive adult content from their games or they would be taken down within two weeks.
This obviously became quite a controversial topic, since it was very clear that only anime-themed games with adult content were being targetted. Games like the "Mass Effect" franchise and "The Witcher 3" have openly marketed themselves as being sexually explicit for years now. It's not even as if Valve's relationship with the anime community has been that bad in the past, so this was beyond unexpected.
Now, Valve was quick to respond the very next day, when all of the involved developers received follow-up emails telling them to ignore the previous email, and that they would discuss this further.
--- #WAIFUHOLOCAUST UPDATE ---
HunieDev (@HuniePotDev) May 19, 2018
I have just received word from Valve apologizing for the confusion, saying to DISREGARD their previous e-mail about the violation, that they are in the process of re-reviewing the game and will follow up soon.
Active Shooter
A more mainstream controversy that popped up later in the month was the one surrounding the "Active Shooter" situation. In the game, you play as an armed combatant either attempting to kill NPC students or as a police force trying to take the school shooter down.
This game got the attention of the mainstream media since school shootings have been such a prominent issue in America for years now, but especially so in 2018. The very thought of glorifying such a heinous act as entertainment was unacceptable in many peoples' eyes.
If you ask me, do I think there's any harm in what is essentially a low-effort "Counterstrike" re-skin? Sort of, but not because I think it's a bad influence that will ignite the resolve of disgruntled high school students all across America to pick up their dad's AR-15. I think it's a bad idea to allow clearly low-effort, asset-flipped content, designed to sell off of shock value to be sold on Steam.
I'm assuming that this game is the reason for why Valve's message still included that they will remove games that are "straight up trolling".
The Resolution
So now that Valve has handed out judgment, anime-themed adult content on Steam should be safe from now on. The free market will dictate what games deserve to exist on the market and nothing more. But as was mentioned before, there does need to be an exception made for games that have been created within a short period of time to quickly stir outrage within the public.
Although, some developers such as Huniedev have now lost faith in Steam as a platform and have opted to expand their operations to other sites such as Fakku and Nutaku. It's unclear how much of an impact that, specifically, will impact Steam in the future, but it has definitely given some momentum to those competing services.
I don't know if it was a matter of pride or what, but I've generally tried to avoid "porn game" sites because I never saw HuniePop as a "porn game". To me it's a "real game" that just happens to have some nice melons in it.
HunieDev (@HuniePotDev) May 19, 2018
But given this new instability with Steam and frankly the overall growth and improvement and seriousness I've seen develop in many of these weeb stores, I'm willing to let that stance go.
HunieDev (@HuniePotDev) May 19, 2018
Many in the community are writing off this move as Valve simply "giving up responsibility" of controlling content on Steam, but they clearly stated that they are working on tools that will allow users to find games that they want to play. We'll have to see if these tools will be of any use whatsoever, but I have faith that they will continue to improve the platform in a way that still respects the freedom of people to dictate culture by themselves without the guidance of an almighty big brother.