Horrific ‘AIDS simulator’ game removed from Steam online store
American games company Valve has removed an ‘AIDS simulator’ game from its Steam Store, just days after it announced it would be allowing customers to buy any controversial games.
The company appears to have removed four games: AIDS Simulator, ISIS Simulator, Triggering Simulator and Asset Flip Simulator.
The games are listed on the Steam Tracker website, which tracked the status of games, as being “banned” or “unreleased.”
Earlier this week, however, Valve announced it would be allowing any games on the Steam store, even problematic ones.
“Recently there’s been a bunch of community discussion around what kind of games we’re allowing onto the Steam Store,” the company said in a statement.
Gabe Newell (right) co-founder of video game developer and distributor Valve (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty)
“So we ended up going back to one of the principles in the forefront of our minds when we started Steam, and more recently as we worked on Steam Direct to open up the Store to many more developers: Valve shouldn’t be the ones deciding this.
“If you’re a player, we shouldn’t be choosing for you what content you can or can’t buy. If you’re a developer, we shouldn’t be choosing what content you’re allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make.
“Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself, and to help you do it in a way that makes you feel comfortable.”
The company added that “the right approach is to allow everything onto the Steam Store” – with the exception of thing they deem “illegal, or straight up trolling.”
A game which allowed players to kill people in a school environment was removed from the site in May (MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty)
Verve added: “Taking this approach allows us to focus less on trying to police what should be on Steam, and more on building those tools to give people control over what kinds of content they see.”
In May, the company removed a game called Active Shooter from the store, which allowed players to kill as many people as possible in a school environment.
An anti-gun violence charity The Infer Trust had called for the game to be pulled from the store before it went on sale in June, calling it “appalling.”
A spokesperson from the organisation told the BBC: “It’s in very bad taste. There have been 22 school shootings in the US since the beginning of this year.
“It is horrendous. Why would anybody think it’s a good idea to market something violent like that, and be completely insensitive to the deaths of so many children?
“We’re appalled that the game is being marketed.”
