As we reported last night, the very controversial mass-killing game Hatred has returned to Steam Greenlight after a sudden removal by Valve. The biggest questions about this was why and how it made this miraculous recovery. Now, thanks to an announcement by the game’s creator Destructive Creations, we know the answer: Gabe Newell. Apparently the Valve founder personally intervened on behalf of the game, ensuring that it would return and be voted on by the community. The statement reads: “Yesterday I heard that we were taking Hatred down from Greenlight. Since I wasn’t up to speed, I asked around internally to find out why we had done that. It turns out that it wasn’t a good decision, and we’ll be putting Hatred back up. My apologies to you and your team. Steam is about creating tools for content creators and customers. Good luck with your game. Gabe”
It turns out that it wasn’t a good decision, and we’ll be putting Hatred back up…Steam is about creating tools for content creators and customers
In reply to Mr. Newell’s message, Destructive Creations responded saying “We’re extremelly happy to be back on Steam Greenlight! It’s hard to find proper words to describe what we all feel right now. It’s simply an amazing thing to get such a great news from Gabe Newell himself! THANKS A LOT GABE!”
This decision by Newell seems to have been a popular one as Hatred quickly reached the top spot on the Greenlight charts, with thousands of votes for the game to be released. Obviously the community as a whole has mixed reactions about something like this, but overall it seems to have been received rather well. A big piece of this is the fact that Valve will continue to refrain from censoring and curating games for their Steam marketplace. This doesn’t really open new doors, but it keeps certain doors open that could have been closed had Hatred remained off the market.
