[Updated] Digital Homicide's Games Removed From Steam

Published: September 16, 2016 10:21 PM /

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Update: Valve has responded to our question, confirming that they did delist the games. This was what Doug Lombardi of Valve had to say:

Valve has stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers.

Original Story below:

We reported earlier today that Digital Homicide is suing 100 Steam users for $18 million. In addition, they filed subpoena against Valve for information about the users in order to be able to pursue the matter. At the time of that report, Valve had taken no action on the matter, but it appears that reprieve has ended.

First spotted by Twitter user lashman (@RobotBrush), it appears that all of Digital Homicide's games have been removed from Steam, and they are not listed as a developer on the storefront. 

https://twitter.com/RobotBrush/status/776924183070736389

Users who previously purchased or acquired the games in other methods on Steam are unaffected by this. The games still appear in your library, just like with previously delisted titles. It is possible that the deletion here is related not to the lawsuit, but instead to Valve's crackdown on reviews and Greenlight votes for keys. While Digital Homicide has not been proven to be involved in that controversy, they have participated in giveaways in groups that did which asked you to go to the Greenlight page to get your code. However, given the timing, that appears unlikely, especially when you consider that previous games that have had that issue have just had the purchase button removed instead of becoming entirely delisted. A prime example of that is most of the output of Rai Studio Games, including Base Squad 49.

Additionally, it appears that Steam keys that have already been given to Digital Homicide and are being distributed through different store fronts will still function. We tested this with a code from their Itch.io page and it redeemed without issues. 

Another impact of this is that the Greenlight queue has gotten lighter. All their games that were on the Steam Greenlight program have been removed from that at this time. The group Digital Homicide Game Central, which is run by Digital Homicide as a central hub for their games is still functional.

In other Digital Homicide news, Youtube Personality and sometime critic Jim Sterling shared on Twitter that the amount Digital Homicide was suing him for had risen to $10 million to $15 million.

https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/776897300992065540

We have reached out to Valve for comment on this matter, and to confirm why the games were removed. We will update this when we find out more about the situation.

What do you think about this situation? Do you think Digital Homicide deserved this? What do you think will be the end result of this? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Don Parsons
| Senior Writer

A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don