The controversial mass-murder simulator has been taken off the leading games distribution site, despite attracting thousands of positive votes
Controversial mass-shooting game Hatred has been removed from Steam, the biggest digital gaming download site.
The project, developed by Polish studio Destructive Creations, was submitted to the site’s Greenlight section, where users vote on whether new titles should be sold via the service. Within three hours, however, the game had been removed by Steam operator Valve Software.
Described as a “genocide crusade” by its creators, Hatred features a lone sociopath who must explore a range of environments shooting civilians and police officers, while gathering extra weapons. The only motivation is to kill and keep killing.
First announced in October, the game has attracted widespread condemnation. Software company Epic Games, which distributes the Unreal Engine used to develop the title, quicklyasked for its logos to be removed from the trailer.
“Based on what we’ve seen on Greenlight we would not publish Hatred on Steam. As such we’ll be taking it down,” Valve spokesperson Doug Lombardi told gaming news site, Eurogamer.
Destructive Creations has, in turn, published a statement on its own site: “We of course fully respect Valve’s decision, as they have right to do so. In the same time we want to assure you that this won’t in any way impact the game development, game’s vision or gameplay features we’re aiming for. The game is still to be released in Q2 2015 as planned.”
Amid widespread unease at the game’s themes and motiveless violence, a sizeable community has grown in support of the title. Just before it was removed from Steam, Hatred had attracted 13,148 “yes” votes supporting its inclusion on the site. Only 1,061 “no” votes were recorded. A video trailer of the game on YouTube has been viewed over 180,000 times.
The game will now need to be sold through other digital distribution stores or via its own dedicated site, though Steam utterly dominates the PC gaming market with over 100m active accounts. The site still features similarly themed titles such as Manhunt, a grueling horror game in which the player is forced to “star” in a snuff film, and Postal, about a disenfranchised worker who goes on a killing spree.
Valve’s decision to remove Hatred comes days after Apple initially rejected the award-winning simulation Papers Please for inclusion on the App Store due to its brief depiction of nudity . It also follows the decision by Australia retailers Target and KMart to remove Grand Theft Auto V from their shelves after an online petition criticised the game for its depiction of violence against women.
All of these stories have raised questions about the power of retailers and platform holders to control and censor content.
However, the situation has also provided a small previously unknown developer with plenty of what studios in the digital marketplace really need: publicity.
“We don’t treat this as a failure because yet again this showed us a huge community support we’re totally overwhelmed with,” reads the statement on the game’s official site.
“The whole situation only pushes us forward to go against any adversity and not to give up. It also makes us want to provide our fans Hatred pre-orders sooner, as many of you have asked for them”
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2014
Stories Chosen For You
A FedEx employee is looking for work after being filmed in a racist rant.
A popular TikTok influencer with almost 10 million followers encountered the employee during a package delivery. The delivery person ultimately shouted that the Spanish-speaking woman should "go back" to her home country.
FedEx called the behavior "unacceptable" and "contrary to professionalism," in a statement to Insider.
The large package was being unloaded from the truck and the delivery person asked, "why don't y'all come help?"
IN OTHER NEWS: Alex Jones' text messages reveal his depressing home life
"Yeah, there ya go, get your boxes since y'all wanna stand there and look at me. Yeah."
At one point the delivery person asks the family to "kiss my white a**."
The influencer repeatedly tells her "leave. Leave."
"You need to go back to your country, I can't tell what you're saying," the delivery person says. "This is America!"
You can see the encounter in the video below or at this link.
@karladelatorre97 Pésimo servicio de #fedEx ♬ original sound - Karleshion
Former FBI general counsel and top prosecutor for Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, responded to the reports about the weaponization of the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr.
Speaking to MSNBC's Ari Melber on Thursday, Weissmann explained that there are some questions about whether Barr broke any rules.
"It really depends on what the it is, because Barr did so many things that were improper," said Weissmann. "If you're asking the question about just meeting with a prosecutor and having drinks with them, I mean, it clearly shows a lack of independence, but that's not against the rules, and that could be done by somebody and be totally proper. That's not Bill Barr's sin. Bill Barr's sins are so many and so varied, whether it is intervening in the Roger Stone case. Whether it's intervening in the Michael Flynn case. Situations where people were -- many, many other defendants were facing the same situation, but he interfered and help them in their case because they were friends of the president's."
Weissmann called it "completely, legally antithetical to the position of the department" and told Melber it was "a fundamental assault on the rule of law."
As for special counsel John Durham, he said that the inspector general did their own investigation into whether the FBI was justified in opening their probe and found nothing wrong.
"But in terms of the predicate, the factual predicate for opening the investigation, it was ample, and the inspector general had already determined that. So, Bill Barr just didn't like the answer," Weissmann explained. "And then to go on TV and to suggest otherwise when, in fact, so far to date, there has been no contrary evidence -- it was entirely properly opened. And then finally, this last piece that was reported in The New York Times about Italy, the idea of using that to have the public think that the criminal aspect that aspect had to do with the FBI and the opening of the investigation, when in fact the lead that they got from Italy was about Donald Trump himself -- I mean, to me, that is just scurrilous to create that misimpression. Of course, I lived through a Barr misimpression when he wrote a 'summary' of our report that was, I thought, completely misleading. The question of, whether Bill Barr, did he break any rules and laws? He certainly broke a whole series of rules about the independence and objectivity of the Department of Justice."
Now that reports are coming out about Barr's involvement in the attempt to discredit the Mueller probe, questions are being raised about his own ethics. Barr is defending himself as doing nothing untoward.
See the discussion with Weissmann below or at the link here.
Bill Barr broke a lot of DOJ rules — but did he break any laws? youtu.be
The private text messages of Alex Jones' have been published to the general public from the Southern Poverty Law Center, stemming from his attorney accidentally sending the complete contents of his phone in the summer of 2021 to the opposing attorney representing families of the Sandy Hook shooting.
Thousands of text messages have been published, and Jones' reputation as a conservative, family man has been challenged by his own words. His contentious relationship with his wife is definitely a recurring theme of the text messages, including having her followed by private investigators. Jones also had his ex-wife followed by investigators.
Ironically enough, while Jones was having his wife followed by private investigators, he was having an affair with a married woman. The released text messages also detail sexual requests from Jones to his married mistress.
IN OTHER NEWS: Imprisoned Trump exec Allen Weisselberg could get hit with more charges
In the text messages, Jones is very transparent about his depressing home life, and the Jan. 6 insurrection does not fix that situation. During that time, he text his father and said that he lives in a "black hole."
Jones has been found financially liable for broadcasting lies and conspiracy theories for the Sandy Hook shootings.
