After accumulating more than 200,000 wishlists, a NSFW gacha game cancels its planned Steam release over a 'policy requirements' problem 'that cannot be reasonably resolved'
A planned Steam release for the adult gacha game BrownDust 2 has been halted over what Gamfs N and Neowiz say is a conflict with Steam's policy requirements "that cannot be reasonably resolved with the current version of the game."
"We have been preparing for a Steam launch for a long time, but during coordination with the platform's policy requirements, we encountered an issue that cannot be reasonably resolved with the current version of the game," the Korean studios wrote in a message posted on the BrownDust 2 website (via GamesRadar). "After extensive internal discussion, we have decided not to proceed with a Steam release.
"We considered multiple options to make the release possible, but in order to preserve the game's core direction and overall quality, we came to the conclusion that making the necessary adjustments at this time would not be appropriate."
That "core direction" doesn't appear to be explicitly pornographic, but is decidedly NSFW, and the track and field theme of one trailer (also decidedly NSFW, so click with caution) suggests a possible reason that that game wouldn't fly on Steam, which does otherwise accept adult games.
Gamfs N and Neowiz didn't specify the exact nature of the issue it encountered, but speculation on the BrownDust 2 subreddit is that the presence of some very young-looking characters in the game may have tripped Valve's wire, and that does seem quite possible. While most of BrownDust 2's denizens present as fairly conventional anime characters, there are one or two—one named Refithea in particular—who are very uncomfortably young-looking.
One redditor also pointed out that another character in the game is, at least in some guises—apparently it varies depending on which skin is being used—10 years old.
Valve may be understandably touchy about having that kind of material on its storefront, especially after the recent payment processor controversy that saw Mastercard force the removal of a number of NSFW games.
But there's a lack of consistency to it all that seems to belie the idea of a policy violation, because it's not entirely clear what the policy actually is. There are plenty of sex games on Steam featuring cartoon characters of indeterminate (but clearly quite young) age, and BrownDust 2 has existed comfortably for years on the App Store and Google Play—both of which are considerably stricter in how they regulate adult content than Steam.
Also pointing to an obvious lack of clarity on the policy front is the fact that, like the recent decision to disallow the release of the psychological horror game Horses on Steam, this decision appears last minute. As recently as December 4, BrownDust 2 was trumpeting its looming Steam release on X, and an awful lot of people were looking forward to it.
Even though it won't be launching on Steam, the Steam wishlist milestone rewards promised by the developer will still be delivered after the December 16 update. The team is also "exploring alternative PC platforms that can provide a better environment for BrownDust2," and will provide details on that once things are figured out.