Based solely off the trailer I can see how a big American storefront would err on the side of caution here. There is very little to gain from carrying a game decidedly built with controversy in mind, but a lot to loose.
With the publicity around it and sales still possible through alternative stores maybe things will turn out alright for the developer in the end. “Banned” media is always in demand, after all.
Unless it unexpectedly sells gangbusters, the dev says they’re likely to shut down as not having the massive steam audience to sell to won’t net them enough to continue. And people are stupidly loyal to valve for some reason.
That's because Valve is privately owned and this has largely resisted the enshittification that largely plagues public companies and private equity frims.
I mean, he released the communication he’s received. It’s not super clear. And the things he thinks it was isn’t even in the current version of the game
If they had to scratch their heads trying to figure out what parts of the game needed to change to not include allusions to that, then they have bigger problems than not releasing on Steam.
They’d be as well carrying on. Its in a pretty unique position as being a game that people are talking about before its even finished, which is pretty uncommon for most titles, and can be “the game they tried to ban” which did wonders for Manhunt, GTA and Postal.
Valve is pretty upfront about being a business first and foremost. Their customers are loyal because they consistently provide high value at reasonable prices, even though they are in a dominating position in the market. They’ve taken unpopular decisions in the past, but never any that seriously alienated a meaningful chunk of their customer base.
Like for instance, when epic came out with their exclusive access titles being a part of their business plan, valve could have responded with their own exclusive access system and had a good chance of killing off epic and others in the process. Instead they just ignored it and people like me continued using them and didn’t even consider epic even when their anticompetitive actions switched to ones that would have benefitted me (free games), because I could see the shithole they wanted to bring gaming to if their platform achieved dominance.
Making the matter even more frustrating is the fact that Horses is apparently quite good—or at least, it accomplishes what it sets out to do. The content is decidedly uncomfortable but reviews and reactions on social media are largely positive
Horses is not low-effort, throwaway trash, but rather a game that genuinely seeks to provoke consideration and conversations.
The game being banned for a misunderstood piece of placeholder concept art in a Steam approval preview build, which was both removed, and explained. Then Valve refusing to reconsider it and rejecting all attempts to clarify their objections.
I know. It’s not Valve’s fault the developer fucked up and gave them the wrong build to review. But that has literally nothing to do with this article unless you’re somehow trying to insinuate that Valve influenced other storefronts.
if one of the builds for your game contains CSAM, then I don’t really give a shit what alternative builds you have, I don’t want to play anything made by you. kudos to Valve for not dealing with pedophiles.
What I get from reading about that scene, it is just one of many examples in that game that was supposed to show how animals are abused on farms by replacing them with humans and letting other people doing „normal“ things to them like marking them with a branding iron or, like in that scene, riding on them. How any sane person reads anything different into that than: this is supposed to show animal abuse really blows my mind.
That is some very black or white, us or them, red team vs blue team thinking. It’s very interesting that you immediately jump to that conclusion when I am not even from the US at all. The answer to your question is absolutely not, and the fact that it’s a “world economy” doesn’t and shouldn’t mean any people are obligated to do business with and accept the controlling interest of literal monsters fueled by oil and oil money. Ethics must also be allowed to control the economy, not just money. The world’s financial systems have consequences beyond just the economy.
I don’t want them to buy it. But there isn’t anything illegal with investors purchasing a company line this no matter where they are from. It’s just business, it really doesn’t matter who owns them, they suck no matter what
I think its more there is a certain level of baseline public investment in most corporations and it seems dumb to maintain the fiction that people’s livelihoods should be sold as a commodity, especially to a bunch of despots
I’d think we’d be far more concerned about critical resource companies before we got to worrying about gaming companies, but we can’t even do that so I’m not surprised.
You seem to be under some misconception regarding who actually writes our laws. Hint: they’re called lobbyists to get people to ignore the rampant bribery.
People commonly have a choice not to drive a car in the first place.
Though cultural pressures, as well as some specific areas being genuinely hard to reach, pushes many people towards it anyway. But if you have a choice, choose public.
Yeah, North America and US specifically is one of these hard to reach places
Also, 12 minutes drive is a biking distance - if you have any semblance of bike infrastructure, that is. Surprisingly though, even American cities have that sometimes.
My 15 minute car commute would take over an hour with a bicycle, lead me over multiple busy and dangerous country roads, has three mountains with over 20% elevation that I have to pass, and would be incredibly unsafe in the winter even with studded tires.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually do take my bicycle when I’m not in a hurry and the weather is right. But it’s a huge time sink and doesn’t absolve my of my dependency on a car.
The same commute takes 2 hours with public transport btw so that’s even worse
Because there exists only one place in the world and that is called US of A? 🙄
Saudi Arabia is still the biggest oil exporter in the world (as of 2024). If you drive an internal combustion car anywhere, chances are high that you paid the Sheiks at least some money for doing so.
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