Ready or Not Sparks Controversy Again; Disappears From Steam [UPDATE #2]
Tactical shooter Ready or Not has been temporarily removed from Steam, a week after it added a level depicting a mass shooting in a nightclub.
Update #2 (June 19)
The crisis was quickly resolved and Ready or Not is now back available for purchase on Steam. It looks like the nightclub map didn't require drastic modification to get rid of the copyright infringing elements.
Update (June 18)
Void Interactive released a statement on Twitter, in which they explained the reasons behind the removal of Ready or Not from Steam.
According to the information posted by the developer, Valve issued a removal request for the game due to alleged intellectual property infringement in the nightclub map that was made available as part of a recent update. Void Interactive has decided to withdraw any material containing that trademark, while reassuring players that the game will return to Steam once the editing process for said content has been completed. Below you can see the developer's original message.
Original message
As reported by NME, it's likely that Valve had the controversial game removed from Steam due to the fact that it had been updated to include a level with a mass shooting in a nightclub. There would be nothing unusual in this, if not for the fact that the content in question appeared in Ready or Not on the anniversary of the tragic 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.
Interestingly, Void Interactive, the game's developer, admitted in a post on Twitterthat the game was removed from the Steam catalog, but did not explain why this happened. Instead, the team added that it is looking into the matter with the platform's administration and Ready or Not fans can expect news on the game's status "soon".
In turn, on Steam's discussion forum for Ready or Not there was a post from Void employee Kaminsky, who stated that the game's disappearance is due to a problem on Valve's part.
"There was some issue somewhere in Steam's "backend" that caused the game to be removed from the store, but Ready or Not is still on the platform.
An update will be posted in this thread and on Discord when the store page is restored," Kaminsky reported.
It's not entirely clear, then, whether the shooter was intentionally removed from Steam's catalog or whether its absence is simply due to Valve's error, and the anniversary of the 2016 shooting is just a coincidence.
It is worth mentioning at the end that this is not the first time that Void Interactive has been in the spotlight because of the content of Ready or Not. Last year we reported that publisher Team17 ended its relationship with the studio just a day after the developer announced that the game would include a mission featuring a school shooter.
