NATIONWIDE -- The popular video-game streaming service Steam has removed a controversial game set to be released next week from its website.
- 'Active Shooter' prompted petition on Change.org
- More than 150,000 signatures asking to stop game's launch
- Steam announced decision Tuesday evening
Valve, the company that operates Steam, made the decision to remove "Active Shooter" late Tuesday. The first-person shooter game allows users to play as a school shooter.
In the run-up to the game's release, its premise ignited a firestorm of controversy.
A Change.org petition calling on Valve to not launch the game garnered more than 150,000 signatures.
A number of politicians, including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, weighed in on the issue as well, calling the game "inexcusable."
Professional video gamer "Siefe" explained the video game's premise and how he couldn't believe the game was on Steam in the first place.
"You can actually do the role of the shooter," he explained. "You can actually gun down not just the police officers, you can actually gun down civilians, you can gun down people, people in the school, like women and children."
About an hour before Steam removed the game, Siefe watched the game's preview. The point-of-view angle provides the player with opportunities for more points for shooting civilians and police officers.
"Even if it looks like the school or doesn't look like the school, there should be no premise that gives somebody the ability to re-enact that act voluntarily," Siefe said. "Ninety-nine percent of the people who play this game are going to have no intention of saying, 'I want to go and shoot up a school.' (That's) 99.999 percent. The problem is, you're still letting kids do these functions and have a good time doing it."
Not everyone seems to share Siefe's concern or sense of outrage over "Active Shooter."
In fact, some users' comments on the video game preview supported it.
"Give these people nothing, release it all," read one comment. "For God's sake, do not remove the shooter's role. Do not budge," read another comment.
Voices protesting the game were just as passionate. The Change.org petition asked, "How can anyone sleep at night knowing that they are profiting from turning deadly school shootings into entertainment?"
After removing the game from Steam, Valve released the following statement:
"We have removed the developer Revived Games and publisher ACID from Steam.
The developer and publisher is, in fact, a person calling himself Ata Berdiyev, who had previously been removed last fall when he was operating as "[bc]Interactive" and "Elusive Team". Ata is a troll, with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation. His subsequent return under new business names was a fact that came to light as we investigated the controversy around his upcoming title. We are not going to do business with people who act like this towards our customers or Valve.
The broader conversation about Steam’s content policies is one that we’ll be addressing soon."