Content Warning: This article includes references to extreme sexual violence, please read on at your own discretion.
Valve has removed a Steam game which contained explicit sexual violence from sale in various countries, including the UK, following media attention.
The Steam page for No Mercy described the game as “a 3D choice-driven adult visual novel with a huge focus on incest and male domination”. Gameplay footage seen by Eurogamer included non-consensual sex.
When No Mercy first came to our attention, Eurogamer contacted Valve for comment regarding the game’s themes and graphic content, and asked why it had been allowed onto the PC storefront, but we did not hear back. Now, Valve has quietly removed No Mercy from sale in the UK and other countries.
Earlier this week, UK technology secretary Peter Kyle berated Valve for allowing No Mercy to be sold. “We expect every one of those [tech] companies to remove content as soon as they possibly can after being made aware of it,” Kyle told LBC (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). “That’s what the law requires, it is what I require as a secretary of state, and it is certainly how we expect platforms who operate and have the privilege of access to British society, and British economy, to do.”
While No Mercy’s Steam page did warn that the game included violent, graphic imagery and themes, Valve’s storefront allows anyone to view product pages by simply inputting a date of birth via a drop-down menu, with no further checks necessary.
The Game Ratings Authority, which administers the PEGI system in the UK, stated “games on Steam can optionally apply for a PEGI age rating via our classification process”, however this is “not mandated by the platform” ahead of a game’s release on the storefront.
It added the Games Rating Authority had “not classified this game” prior to its release and Steam, and nor had it been requested to do so since.
In an additional statement shared with GamesIndustry.biz, CEO of Women in Games Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman said the organisation was “appalled by recent reports surrounding a Steam game, which encourages players to ‘become every woman’s worst nightmare’ and ‘never take no for an answer’.”
Isaaman said the availability of games such as No Mercy on Steam was “utterly unacceptable”, as 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 said.
GamesIndustry.biz has also now reported that No Mercy is unavailable for sale in Australia and Canada.
Eurogamer has again reached out to Valve for comment on No Mercy, asking why it was ever allowed on Steam, and about its subsequent removal from the platform.