The developer of the match 3/dating game hybrid has announced that he'll launch a HuniePop 2 censored version on Steam due to Valve's inconsistent policies. This news comes after a number of games have recently had issues with getting published on the Steam Store despite Valve's changes to their censorship policies after a number of games found themselves facing the threat of removal last year.
HuniePot posted a series of three tweets to explain why they'll launch HuniePop 2 censored. Previously, Valve has stated that they will only refuse to publish games that are "illegal" or "straight-up trolling". A nebulous definition to be sure, but it certainly excluded lewd content. However, some developers have reported issues with getting published on Steam after this policy change. Developers aside from HuniePot have highlighted their concerns surrounding this issue.
As a result of these seemingly inconsistent policies, HuniePot will launch HuniePop 2 censored on Steam. HuniePot also cheekily states that they're sure a third party will create a censorship patch and put it online. Describing the situation as "some shady shit going down" in a subsequent tweet, the developer laments the situation but nonetheless credits Valve for giving them somewhere to publish their games at all.
That's not to say that you won't be able to get an uncensored version of the game anywhere, of course. As previously stated, a third party is very likely to make an uncensorship patch for the game to get around this silliness. That aside, HuniePop 2 will also likely launch on other stores such as Nutaku, Mangagamer, and the like where it's expected to be released fully uncensored. (Disclosure: we have an affiliate partnership with some of these storefronts.)
Steam has long been the go-to place for getting games and it seemed like things were turning a corner for adult games. Unfortunately, it appears that Valve does not have the confidence of quite a few adult gaming devs. HuniePop 2 is expected to launch sometime in 2019.
What do you think of HuniePot deciding to make HuniePop 2 censored on Steam? Does this decrease the chances that you'll buy it on that platform? Let us know in the comments below!