The Women in Games organisation has called on Valve to remove a game from Steam which promotes sexual assault and incest.
This article contains strong references to non-consensual sexual assault and abuse.
A statement from the non-profit organisation condemns a game which was added to Steam last month, but which VGC will not name in this article.
The game is an adult visual novel with “a huge focus on incest and male domination”, where players have to respond to their mother’s affair by “claiming her for yourself”.
Its Steam description tells players they have to “own her”, and then “become every woman’s worst nightmare” and “leave no p*ssy non-f*cked, since that’s the only thing they all want – never take ‘no’ for an answer”.
The game’s Steam page, which also includes a screenshot of a woman with a hand clenched around her throat, says it “graphically contains sex and violence, mature language, nudity, graphic depictions of oral, vaginal, and other sexual activities” and “includes incest, blackmail, unavoidable non-consensual sex, as well as the use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.”
Women in Games CEO Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman has called on Valve to “act urgently” and remove the game from Steam, saying the game’s content “is not only vile and dangerous, but also actively promotes the dehumanisation of women and girls.”
“The fact that a game like this is available on Steam — one of the world’s largest gaming platforms — is utterly unacceptable,” she added. “It sends a clear and distressing message: that violence against women is not only tolerable, but playable. That message has no place in our industry, our communities, or our society.”
Isaaman explained that Women in Games’ role in the industry includes called out misogynistic content, advocating for safe and inclusive communities “where women and girls are respected and supported”, and “eradicating the toxic cultures that foster harassment and abuse”.
“We call on Valve Corporation, the owners of Steam, to act urgently,” she concluded. “This game must be removed. Stronger content moderation policies must be implemented. And a zero-tolerance stance on misogyny and hate must be visibly enforced. Women and girls deserve better from this industry. We invite all allies to stand with us — to speak up, act, and support the future of a safe and inclusive gaming world.”
In the past, Valve had a troubled relationship with games involving sexual content. The company used to outright ban games if they had any sexual content, then went through a period where it would retract some bans and apologise, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz at the time. This seemed to change in 2018 when it added an Adult Only filter to Steam, effectively allowing adult games onto the platform while also providing players with an option to never see any of them.
Despite this, Valve does still have a list of rules on games that shouldn’t be published on Steam, generally revolving around content that breaks the law. This includes games that “promote hatred, violence or discrimination against groups of people based on ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation,” as well as “content that is patently offensive or intended to shock or disgust viewers”. It appears to be up to Valve to determine whether the game in question falls foul of these guidelines.
