Update from HuniePot Dev: https://twitter.com/HuniePotDev/status/ ... 7977436160
Update from Lupiesoft: https://twitter.com/Lupiesoft/status/997982926242398208I 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.
I should be clear this doesn't mean we're out of the woods. It just means we have an interesting development. Whatever the case, the communication and clarification from Valve is very, very much appreciated.
Update from MangaGamer: https://twitter.com/MangaGamer/status/9 ... 4480052226Lupiesoft has also just received word from Valve that Mutiny!! is being re-reviewed for content, and that the 2 week deadline is off.
We'll update everyone as any more information comes our way.
Original post (May 18):Update: We have just received word from Valve to disregard the previous notice. According to the e-mail, Kindred Spirits will be re-reviewed and we will be provided with specific feedback if there are concerns about the game’s content.
Valve has begun what appears to be a mass-removal of games with "adult" content with Steam, focused entirely on games with manga/anime-inspired graphics. (Don't expect this to affect games like GTA, The Witcher, or Dragon Age.)
Huniepot Dev: https://twitter.com/HuniePotDev/status/ ... 1384340482
MangaGamer: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2018/05/18/r ... y-notices/"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."
Lupiesoft: https://twitter.com/Lupiesoft/status/997293788316844032We would like to confirm, along with so many other developers who have come forward, that our title, Kindred Spirits, has also been targeted by Steam’s sudden and abrupt content policy shift and has been threatened with removal if the content of the game is not modified.
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.
We went to great pains to run the game’s content by Valve representatives––including sending along every potentially questionable graphical asset along with advanced builds of the title––to ensure that that feeling was mutual. The game would have never appeared on the platform if we had not confirmed with Valve representatives that they did not feel the content was pornographic and was appropriate for the platform.
Despite our best efforts to respect both the letter and spirit of Valve’s content guidelines as we were made to understand them, we are wholly in the dark with this latest apparent shift in policy as no clear guidelines or standards have been provided. We will seek to negotiate with Valve to keep Kindred Spirits as-is on the Steam Store to the best of our ability, but failing that we still require guidelines to modify the title and future titles to fit these new, apparently stricter standards.
Regardless of Steam’s content policies, MangaGamer remains committed to excellent games and stories being told as they were meant to be. We have a long history of this commitment in the digital space relative to the majority of our competitors, and we invite any developers and partners who would like to sell on our platform to get in touch at support@mangagamer.com as we prepare to upgrade it in coming months for more clients, partners, and community building. Remember that in buying directly through us, more of your purchase goes directly to the game’s developers rather than a significant portion going to retail platform fees.
We will continue to post developments as they progress on this topic. All press requests should be made to our press director, John Pickett, kouryuu@mangagamer.com.
https://twitter.com/Lupiesoft/status/997310465247035392We'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.
In fact @Lupiesoft 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 @MangaGamer 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 @Lupiesoft did in regards to Mutiny!! was fully agreed to by Steam, on behalf of @MangaGamer before we even did it, as did many other devs.
This puts @Lupiesoft in a bad situation. while funding for #DizzyHearts is secure, Mutiny!! was our biggest title, this threatens our future when a platform like @steam_games 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.
The biggest issue is what is Steam defining as pornography, because in the Steam ver. the most pornographic thing in the entire game are topless sprites, and that is it.
If we're defining top nudity as pornography, than thousands of games fit that qualification.
Every GTA game, every God of War, every Witcher game, and thousands more that have nude breasts.
Reality is Mutiny!! is appropriately labeled as having mature content in Steamworks, and our store page is as well.
The only assumption I can make here is anime art = porn. Because Mutiny!! is one of the tamest mature games on Steam.