To give the rundown:
One of the typical religious groups that have popped up by the thousands in the past several years, known as Morality In Media has been petitioning Valve to have them take down games that contain ANY and ALL sexual content based on the overly ridiculous Christian ideology the group holds. For them the easiest target was to point at the visual novel genre and go:
A lot of visual novels, again not all, can be risque and have always been a thing on Steam that has been borderline but all of the publishers have done everything to stay in compliance with Valve's terms and guidelines for the service. That even if there is sexual content in the game, that nothing contained is pornographic because that would receive an Adults Only (AO) rating and thus would be removed from the service. That means if these games did contain any of that kind of content that these developers even go out of their way to create an edited version for Steam.
For years, higher grossing games on Steam were visual novels like the Nekopara games, the Grisaia series, the Sakura series, and puzzle/novel games like Hunnie Pop. These were top selling games on the service, none of which had any issues from launch until just recently, none of which changed any of their content during that time or since.
Yet, Valve has figured that it's easiest to just give in to a group like this and go, "alright alright we give up, leave us the fuck alone for awhile and we'll take down the visual novels. It won't be too big an issue." A lot of people have taken it as a big issue from the developers who are suddenly having their life works cut from under them and for the gamers who enjoy these games.
One of my biggest complaints against Valve doing something this asinine is this.
They allow a massive influx of these incomplete, beyond half-assed, piece of shit, asset flips using Unity, the Unreal Engine, CryTek engine, and more onto the service. Previously through Steam Greenlight and now through Steam Direct. These games which involve barely credible people to purchase assets from the different engine stores, throw them together in a mish-mashed map and as long as they pay, Valve will stick the absolute pig shit that they call a "game" up on their service. When thousands of people complain that there are too many of these asset flips from gamers to developers, Steam ignores it, there isn't a problem, it isn't an issue.
But NO Valve would say, "we've been instrumental in helping shut down several of the illicit gambling sites that sell skins for in game items for Counter Strike". Which to their credit they have, yet they neglect to mention that helps people sell these through Steam instead, in which Valve takes a 5% cut of the profits on each sale. All about the bottom dollar in the long run, so they are definitely not allowed to be painted as the good guys on this.
What suddenly is the problem with any of these visual novels, other than a bunch of overly concerned Christian wackos want to censor things ??
Answer. Nothing.
I have played several over the years. All the Grisaia games, which they ended up Kickstarting a fantastic anime version of. All of the Nekopara games, which they also Kickstarted a really well done OVA out of. Many of the Sakura games. Sound of Drop, If My Heart Had Wings, Sunrider Academy, and a lot more. They usually all have interesting stories. Some about romance, some about everyday life, some about very interesting and conflicting topics like in the Grisaia series (honestly, watch the anime version). After playing these, all through Steam too, there is one thing I can safely say. There is very little issue I would take with any of these games being as bad as that group has made it out to be. Yes, there are patches that you are able to buy from Sekai Project or Denpasoft, the actual developers themselves, to uncensor a game but you have to go through them for that version or patch and it has nothing to do with Steam.
This is simply Valve overreacting to a situation that they can simply solve by looking at a group like this and going. That's a stupid thought process, we're going to forget you said anything, leave us alone. Go back to pestering other people with your agenda.
I know that even me posting this seems like it may be a bit of an overreaction but it bothers me that activist groups with no real purpose other than censorship gets their way. I'm AT LEAST happy that people who have purchased these games aren't being stiffed by Steam and as long as they are in the library that you'll still be able to play and download them. Yet for me, the people I feel for the most is the developers: HunniePop, Sekai Project, NekoWorks, etc, etc. none of these devs will be allowed to use Steam as a platform to get their work out anymore and considering how huge a platform Steam is for digital distribution of PC games it is almost like being shot in the head. Asset flippers, skin gamblers, and people who make games just for achievements on Steam are 100% okay with Valve but actual legitimate developers who put a lot of time and effort into creating games, with good stories, and usually beautiful artwork, are NOT okay to them.
Now, this is almost a guaranteed thing but who knows with all of the backlash that is starting to build up, maybe Valve will see how stupid a decision this is and backtrack on it. Because everyone, even YouTubers I dislike (like Markiplier) enjoy these games, they are fun to listen along to, to just enjoy the experience. Let's just hope these smiling faces from Nekopara are still smiling after the final results post-backlash of this situation and that they along with many visual novel fans aren't saddened by this snap decision.