MangaGamer Dishes On Steam Removing Its Game
Visual novel Bokuten ~ Why I Became an Angel has had a bumpy few months out there in the wild, as revealed by publisher MangaGamer.
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MangaGamer – publishers for Bokuten ~ Why I Became an Angel which was unexpectedly pulled from Steam at the end of last month – have revealed some insight into why this actually happened.
In an interview with HeyPoorPlayer, Head Translator and PR contact for Bokuten, John Pickett, gives us the much-anticipated low-down of the visual novel’s bumpy timeline.
Both an 18+ version of the game were released on Discord and the MangaGamer website, as well as an All-Ages version on Steam, in December 2019. The All-Ages version cut out any explicit content and even had entirely rewritten scenes in order to avoid the inclusion of any mature content. The adult content does, however, apparently serve a purpose deeper than just fan service, according to Pickett:
They reflect back on and build upon Bokuten’s themes of love, relationships, and happiness. Some shine a light on the health and happiness (or lack thereof) of the relationships Tomoe finds for himself…and so on.
According to Pickett himself, when their game was pulled from Steam they weren’t actually contacted by Valve. “When Bokuten was first removed from Steam, we were contacted by a fan who was trying to buy Bokuten on Steam and wanted to know why his transaction failed mid-purchase. That was how our company and our staff first learned that Bokuten had been banned.”
To make matters worse, apparently when a representative from Steam did eventually contact MangaGamer, they told the latter: “It has come to our attention that you have added sexual content to Why I Became An Angel that would not have passed our content review process.” But that was completely false, says Pickett:
Evidence that we had not updated the build in any way, shape, or form was clear and easily accessible in Steam’s database, which the representative could have checked beforehand, so we were completely baffled.
But after some further investigation – including by MangaGamer themselves, it was discovered that there were some “adult assets left over in inaccessible game files” within the All-Ages build on Steam. The key word here being “inaccessible,” meaning users wouldn’t be able to access them, short of reverse engineering the game. Either way, MangaGamer admits that this was an oversight on their part and immediately corrected it.
MangaGamer still, however, “emphatically disagree” with the claim made by Valve’s Vice President of Marketing, Doug Lombardi, that these hidden assets included sexual content involving an underage character.
Basically, all this tumult seems to be a consequence of both poor communication on Steam’s side, and an oversight on MangaGamer’s side. Either way, it seems the latter did manage to get their game back on Steam’s storefront after all – and it’s available now for 50% off!
Source: HeyPoorPlayer
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/mangagamer-dishes-on-steam-removing-its-game-bokuten/