[UPDATE] Hatred has returned to Steam Greenlight, where users can continue to vote on whether they are interested in the game.
The original story appears below.
Hatred, the ultraviolent massacre sim that gained notoriety due to its controversial content, has been removed from Stream’s Greenlight program.
Steam custodian Valve confirmed it had deleted the listing, after it had rapidly accrued thousands of votes, suggesting that the game’s brutal content had spurred its decision.
“Based on what we’ve seen on Greenlight we would not publish Hatred on Steam,” Valve spokesperson Doug Lombardi told Eurogamer. “As such we’ll be taking it down.”
Hatred was revealed to the public in October with a trailer that immediately drew controversy. The video, above, features a lone gunman preparing for a massacre in his home, before setting himself upon the surrounding neighbourhood.
Later, the video depicts stabbings, mall massacres, and shotgun executions. The nameless character, dressed in a leather trench coat, is at one point seen jamming a pistol into a fallen woman’s mouth, before pulling the trigger.
Valve’s decision to not support the game follows a similar distancing from the game’s engine creator, Epic Games. The company has previously said: “Epic Games isn’t involved in this project. Unreal Engine 4 is available to the general public for use ‘for any lawful purpose,’ and we explicitly don’t exert any sort of creative control or censorship over projects. However, the video is using the trademarked Unreal Engine 4 logo without permission from Epic, and we’ve asked for the removal of our logo from all marketing associated with this product.”
Creative Destruction, the game’s Poland based developer, has responded to Valve’s removal of the game by saying it respects the corporation’s decision, adding that it was overjoyed with the response from supporters of the project.
In a message to fans, the company wrote: “Even though games like Manhunt or Postal are still available on Steam we of course fully respect Valve’s decision, as they have right to do so. In the same time we want to assure you that this won’t in any way impact the game development, game’s vision or gameplay features we’re aiming for. The game is still to be released in Q2 2015 as planned.
“Moreover we don’t treat this as a failure because yet again this showed us a huge community support we’re totally overwhelmed with. After only a couple of hours Greenlight campaign being live, Hatred gathered 13,148 up votes and ended up on a #7 on top 100 list.
“This is the best proof for us that there are diehard Hatred fans out there waiting for this game to be released. And that we need to keep going to deliver them a game that offers exciting and challenging gameplay. The whole situation only pushes us forward to go against any adversity and not to give up. It also makes us want to provide our fans Hatred pre-orders sooner, as many of you have asked for them.”
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