First, HuniePop developer HuniePot received an email from Steam stating that their game violated the terms and conditions. It appears this move was just a precursor for what is happening this week. Folks speculated on what the reason could be, but Valve never explicitly explained. MangaGamer, who had previously had face-to-face talks with Valve to ensure their content was Steam safe, couldn’t get in contact with anyone about the decision. The most worrying event was back in April when A Kiss for the Petals: Maidens of Michael was suddenly removed shortly after launch. It was a sensible move, and for the most part, fans checking out these games already knew if and when a game release offered a patch. While patches were still allowed to exist, developers could no longer mention or link to them anywhere on the game’s store page or in the forums.
Last year, Valve updated their stance on patches. Things were looking up for fans - but then cracks started to appear.
Established Japanese companies either had their work published by a North American company or went right ahead and self-published. Within just a few years, copious indie developers brought their titles to the platform. Other developers, such as Christine Love, also received Valve’s assurance which led to her move to release Ladykiller in a Bind uncut on Steam after initially releasing exclusively on the Humble Store.įrom 2014 onward, the presence of visual novels on Steam increased tremendously. MangaGamer took especially careful measures, going so far as to show the sex scene artwork from Kindred Spirits on the Roof before getting the okay from Valve to publish it in full on Steam. Eventually, both Sekai Project and MangaGamer had direct talks with staff at the company to ensure that what they were publishing to the storefront was acceptable. Things were getting perhaps too wild on the platform, but Valve didn’t seem to mind. It meant they could release an all-ages title on Steam and offer a free or paid off-site patch to turn it into the adult version. More companies joined the patch bandwagon because it finally allowed them access to the Steam marketplace. HuniePop in particular introduced gamers to the concept of an “uncensor patch” which would turn the game from an iffy but “all-ages” version to offering nude artwork. These games put their sexuality at the forefront and tested Valve’s guidelines - whatever those guidelines actually were. Things took a turn for the interesting when the likes of Sakura Spirit and HuniePop arrived on the platform. With the aid of Steam Greenlight, more visual novels and dating sims slowly trickled out. That all changed with the release of indie titles such as Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos and Analogue: A Hate Story. Once upon a time, visual novels were not allowed on Steam.
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