'Hatred' Game Controversy: Steam Thinks Murdering Innocent Bystanders Is Too Much

What does it take to cross the line in video gaming? How about randomly shooting young children in school, police officers and innocent bystanders begging for their lives? All that proved too much for Steam, which pulled Destructive Creations' game "Hatred" from its Steam Greenlight program on Monday.

When the Polish developer launched its trailer for the coming shooter game “Hatred” in October, it got substantial backlash for the title’s gratuitous violent content. Unlike other shooter games where players take on the role of the protagonist or hero, "Hatred" is simply violence for the sake of violence. Players take on the role of a murderous sociopath whose parents probably didn't hug him enough in a game that Destructive Creations is defending as a reaction to "political correctness" in the gaming industry.

Greenlight is a service on the gaming platform that lets players select which games are added to the service. But proving that even bad press can turn into good press, “Hatred” received 13,148 votes from users on Steam Greenlight’s list of most wanted games before it was removed.

"Even though games like ‘Manhunt’ or ‘Postal’ are still available on Steam, we of course fully respect Valve's decision, as they have the right to do so,” Destructive Creations said in a statement on Monday. “In the same time we want to assure you that this won't in any way impact the game's development, game's vision or gameplay features we're aiming for. The game is still to be released in Q2 2015 as planned.”

Take a look at the 1.5 minute trailer on YouTube and you may understand why the game was removed from Steam. Though plenty of other games glamorize lifestyles laden with criminal activity, the gameplay trailer for “Hatred” opens with an angry male with long, dark hair collecting weapons from a darkened room. He is then shown stabbing police officers and women – as well as shooting pedestrians on the street and in a shopping mall. The trailer currently has more than 1.2 million views.

Still, the Poland-based company plans to continue with the development of the game, and it seems like there will still be plenty of eager buyers, despite (or because of) its vicious content.

"At the end of the day you, gamers will judge if we were able to do a game that's simply fun to play,” Destructive Creations said. “The whole situation only pushes us forward to go against any adversity and not to give up. It also makes us want to provide our fans ‘Hatred’ pre-orders sooner, as many of you have asked for them.”