“The Key to Home / いえのかぎ” has been deleted from the steam store by valve.
I want to thank you all for your continued support.
It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you all that “The Key to Home”(AppID:710370) has been deleted from the steam store by valve.
Here is basically how everything has transpired so far.
Our game, “The Key to Home” was approved by Valve after passing through their game content reviewing process.Then on Dec 1st, we received an E-mail from Valve asking us to explain the game’s plot and to also specify its intended audience. Wanting to respond to them quickly, we hastily summarized the plot in Japanese and explained to them that the target audience is people concerned with the social problem of children and people who like children in general. We also told them our stance that if there were any questions, we would be ready to answer to them.
However, four days later they responded with a very short E-mail stating simply
“We are not interested in shipping this title on Steam”. Shortly after receiving this response, “The Key to Home”’s store page was deleted, and the payment we made to SteamDirect was returned.
After sending them numerous E-mails requesting a direct explanation as to why it was deleted, the response we finally got was essentially
“(because)we think this novel’s core audience is pedophiles”.
However, since that is the exact
opposite message of this game, it is clear that their decision was based on an ill informed and misinterpreted understanding of its content.
We have continually taken a strong stance
AGAINST promoting crimes against children.
This stance of ours may already be obvious to those of you who read these discussion boards, but any users hinting at sexual acts with minors have been swiftly banned and we have also made it very clear to people that this title contains no sexually explicit images whatsoever.
We have continually asked Valve to inform us of any specific issues that they have with us or this title, but as of this moment we have yet to receive any clear response.
While it does have eye catching visuals, “The Key to Home” is a game that offers much more than meets the eye. This is a novel game that aims to raise social awareness of child and school related social issues through a story about four troubled heroines who, under unexpected circumstances, join forces with a young hapless teacher to fight against the evil forces that mean to exploit children.
There are no direct sexual expressions in this game whatsoever.
We make no hesitation in declaring that this game is meant not to make a negative impact on the world, but rather to make a positive impact on it by providing its players with new ideas and perspectives.
Also, this title is already on sale in Japanese stores after having been approved as “appropriate for all ages” and even has a physical disc version that has been available for several months now.
https://www.melonbooks.co.jp/detail/detail.php?product_id=270255
Many people have already played this game and as of this moment, there hasn’t been a single complaint from any one saying that this game is aimed at pedophiles.
We are ready to answer and respond to any and all question related to this title. Also, if any areas are deemed to contain unacceptable content we are prepared to deal with them.
Valve has not yet responded to any of the inquiries we have made over these last few days.
However, we still firmly believe that valve is a company that respects the right to freedom of speech and that they will allow us to reach a conclusion through fair discussion.
At this time, we are open to listening to your ideas and opinions on how we might fully correct this matter and bring this title back onto steam.
I thank you again for your support, and look forward to hearing from you all.
