Valve has responded to the disturbing game up for consideration on the Steam Store, announcing that no – it will not be distributing the game via Steam.
In a statement entitled “Rape Day will not ship on Steam,” Valve said:
“Over the past week you may have heard about a game called ‘Rape Day’ coming soon to Steam. Today we’ve decided not to distribute this game on Steam. Given our previous communication around Who Gets To Be On The Steam Store?, we think this decision warrants further explanation.
“Much of our policy around what we distribute is, and must be, reactionary—we simply have to wait and see what comes to us via Steam Direct. We then have to make a judgement call about any risk it puts to Valve, our developer partners, or our customers. After significant fact-finding and discussion, we think ‘Rape Day’ poses unknown costs and risks and therefore won’t be on Steam.
“We respect developers’ desire to express themselves, and the purpose of Steam is to help developers find an audience, but this developer has chosen content matter and a way of representing it that makes it very difficult for us to help them do that.”
Rape Day saw a huge backlash both in and outside of the gaming community for its graphic nature. The official description for the 30-minute-long game read: “Control the choices of a menacing serial killer rapist during a zombie apocalypse. Verbally harass, kill, and rape women as you choose to progress the story.
“It’s a dangerous world with no laws. The zombies enjoy eating the flesh of warm humans and brutally raping them but you are the most dangerous rapist in town.
“Rape Day is a choice driven visual novel. It does not include grinding or any other time wasting activities. So skip the foreplay and enjoy your Rape Day; you deserve it.”
Thankfully, the title won’t be appearing on the Steam Store.
Read more about the game here.
Featured Image Credit: Valve