A queer visual novel developer has posted a message she received from Valve after some of her games were removed from Steam’s Russian store page, and it is kind of crazy that it basically tells developers that it’s their job to comply with a hateful regime’s anti-queer laws rather than challenge them with queer stories.
Ebi-hime, the developer behind yuri visual novels like Her Love, Like Poison and Rituals in the Dark, posted on X that Valve notified her that some of her games had been banned from the storefront in Russia after Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal agency in charge of censorship in the country, determined those projects to be in violation of the country’s rules for distribution. That in and of itself isn’t surprising considering Russia has woven anti-queer legislation into its laws and even designated queer activism as an “extremist” movement. What is surprising is that Valve’s copy-pasted message on the situation is condescending and victim-blamey. It reads in part:
We also want to remind you that you promised Valve under the Steam Distribution Agreement that your games comply with all applicable laws. Therefore, it is your responsibility to do your due diligence regarding where your games are allowed to be distributed, and to inform us of any territory where they cannot be.
In exciting news, a bunch of my yuri vns have been banned in Russia on Steam b/c the Russian government hates gay people, & Steam sent me this lovely message telling me this is my fault & I should have done my due diligence by pre-emptively complying with homophobic laws 🙏 pic.twitter.com/g80uLMlMeA
— ✨🦐 ebi 🦐✨ (@ebihimes) May 26, 2026
Charitably, this could be Steam covering its ass by putting the blame solely on a developer so it can wash its hands of any local law-breaking by having queer content on its Russian storefront, but it is crazy that it uses the language of a patronizing middle manager pouting about how it’s so damn sad it had to write you up for doing something righteous, but it was your fault that you didn’t censor your queer games to cave into a fascist regime. “You promised.” Blech.
Not that I would expect Valve to take a proper stance against something like the Russian government. I just think that if you’re going to take the stance of compliance that it is taking, you can at least be mindful of how you talk to people using your platform about it. If you don’t want to buy Ebi-hime’s games on Steam, they are also available on itch.io.
