The game was slated to arrive next month.
Popular PC gaming platform Steam is no longer planning to have the controversial game “Rape Day” next month.
The game, which was created by indie developer Desk Plant, was set to be released in April and is said to have been a “visual novel” featuring images of graphic violence toward women.
"'Rape Day' is a game where you can rape and murder during a zombie apocalypse,” a description of the game read.
The game was previewed on the Steam platform for three weeks and featured screenshots of women held at gunpoint and included rape scenes, which caused immediate backlash.
During previews of the game, a Change.Org petition was created to get the game pulled. “We need to let reviewers know that a game centered on raping and killing women is unacceptable and cannot hit the market,” the petition read.
It received nearly 8,000 signatures.
Following the backlash and controversy, Steam released a statement to Business Insider saying it was not moving forward with the release of the game.
“Much of our policy around what we distribute is, and must be, reactionary — we simply have to wait and see what comes to us via Steam Direct. We then have to make a judgement call about any risk it puts to Valve, our developer partners, or our customers. After significant fact-finding and discussion, we think 'Rape Day' poses unknown costs and risks and therefore won't be on Steam,” the company said in a statement.
"We respect developers' desire to express themselves, and the purpose of Steam is to help developers find an audience, but this developer has chosen content matter and a way of representing it that makes it very difficult for us to help them do that.”
Desk Plant said it followed Steam’s policies and disclosed the graphic nature of “Rape Day” to the platform operators.
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