Valve facing backlash over school shooting game on Steam
Just days after yet another fatal school shooting in the US (this latest tragedy taking place at Santa Fe High School in Texas) Valve has been called to pull a game from Steam called Active Shooter which let players tackle hostage situations in schools, including letting them play as a terrorist who can shoot children.
The first-person title by Revived Games (whose credits include White Power: Pure Voltage and Dab, Dance & Twerk) isn't available to buy just yet, rather it's set to launch on the platform on June 6, but there have been calls for the game to be removed before it goes on sale early next month.
In response to the outpouring of anger towards the title, via a post over on Steam, a studio rep using the moniker "Acid" wrote that the game "does not promote any sort of violence, especially any [sort] of a mass shooting."
"Originally when this game started its course of the development, I have planned on having SWAT only based gameplayer," Acid said by way of explanation. "Then I thought about adding more gameplay to it by adding additional roles: of the shooter and the civilian. While I can see people's anger and why this might be a bad idea for the game, I still feel like this topic should be left alone. As I mentioned in steam discussion forums, there are games like Hatred, Postal, Carmageddon and etc., which are even worst compared to "Active Shooter" and literally focus on mass shootings/killings of people."
"I have wrote to Valve regarding this game and waiting for the reply," he added. "After receiving such high amount of critics and hate, I will more likely remove shooters role in this game by the release, unless if it can be kept as it is right now."
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for firearm safety organisation Infer Trust told the BBC: "It's in very bad taste. There have been 22 school shootings in the US since the beginning of this year. It is horrendous. Why would anybody think it's a good idea to market something violent like that, and be completely insensitive to the deaths of so many children?
"We're appalled that the game is being marketed."
At the time of writing, Valve doesn't seem to have clarified its position on the matter. We'll update you if and when the situation changes.