Valve Changing Steam Review Process After Visual Novel Gets Canceled, Then Un-Canceled
Upcoming visual novel Chaos; Head Noah has been un-canceled for a Steam release, and Valve is changing its review process for games as a result.
The game’s release was pulled last month after Steam insisted upon “guideline-required changes” to the game’s content. Now, it looks as though Steam has reversed that decision.
“Valve’s content review team, the group that made the original decision, has re-examined CHAOS;HEAD NOAH and decided to reverse course and allow the game to ship on Steam, as is,” said Valve in a statement to the developer, Spike Chunsoft. “We’ve also examined the process that led to the previous decision about CHAOS;HEAD NOAH, and made some changes to avoid situations like this in the future.”
Chaos; Head Noah is a visual novel (and part of the Science Adventure series that also includes the more well-known Steins;Gate) that sees players attempting to solve a series of murders in Tokyo’s Shubuya area. Quite what the proposed changes were remains unclear, but some have speculated that the game’s partial setting in a school may have prompted Steam to initially refuse to sell the game.
Whatever the changes were, it looks as though Spike Chunsoft was unwilling to make them, stating that it wouldn’t allow them to release the game to the company’s standards: “Spike Chunsoft, Inc. believes these changes would not allow the game to be released to its standards,” it said at the time.
After the reversal, the company said: “We believe this decision is the result of the unwavering support from fans of the Science Adventure Series as well as all of the players who are eagerly awaiting the release of this title,” said the game’s developers. “Your voices have been heard. We sincerely appreciate your commitment. We look forward to your continued support of Spike Chunsoft and the Science Adventure Series.”
It looks as though these issues were ironed out just in the nick of time, too – Chaos; Head Noah will launch on Nintendo Switch and PC (via Steam) today, October 7, 2022.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
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