Update: Hatred has been reinstated on Steam Greenlight.
Original: You've likely heard of Hatred, an isometric action game about a mass murderer who slaughters people for fun, just because he hates humanity. In October its graphic announcement trailer generated exactly the sort of outrage its developers surely hoped for, and Epic Games almost immediately requested that the studio remove the Unreal Engine 4 logo from the footage. Now the game has hit another, potentially more damaging bump in the road: Valve has removed the game from Steam Greenlight.
The Greenlight campaign was taken down just a couple of hours after it went live. "We wanted you guys to know that based on what we see on Greenlight we would not publish Hatred on Steam," Valve told developer Destructive Creations. "As such we'll be taking it down."
"Even though games like Manhunt or Postal are still available on Steam we of course fully respect Valve’s decision, as they have right to do so," the studio said in a statement. "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."
It also pointed out that in the very short time the Hatred Greenlight was live, it amassed 13,148 "yes" votes, moving it to number seven on the Greenlight list, which contains nearly 2200 games in total. "This is the best proof for us that there are diehard Hatred fans out there waiting for this game to be released. And that we need to keep going to deliver them a game that offers exciting and challenging gameplay," the studio added. "The whole situation only pushes us forward to go against any adversity and not to give up."
Destructive Creations said that it intends to approach GOG next, and that it will offer the game for sale directly through its own website regardless of which distributors ultimately end up carrying it. Hatred is currently being targeted for launch in the second quarter of 2015.
