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Ready or Not, a Rainbow Six-style tactical FPS has been delisted from Steam. The game's Steam page simply redirects to the main Steam Store index now, as is common when games are pulled from the service.
The reason for the game being delisted seems to be up in the air at the moment. A concrete reason was not provided by any party yet. Developer VOID Interactive made a tweet along with a post on Steam that acknowledged the removal of the game, but seems to express ignorance about what happened. The statement seems to suggest that it's an issue with "Steams [sic] Backend."
There is an issue somewhere with Steams Backend and it's resulted in the game being taken off the store for some reason, but Ready or Not is still on the platform.
According to a report by NME, Ready or Not was pulled from Steam after it added in a level depicting a mass shooting at a nightclub. The Steam delisting came a few days after the Supporter edition of Ready or Not added a new map set in a nightclub named Prysm.
Prysm takes place in the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a nightclub, and depicts the scene of a mass shooting, with piles of bodies strewn across the map. The level bears some resemblance to the 2015 Bataclan shooting in Paris, as well as the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub.
If the game was intentionally pulled from Steam by Valve, this wouldn't be the first time they did such a thing. In 2018. Valve pulled a game named Active Shooter after receiving complaints from parents of school shooting victims.
In 2021, VOID Interactive split with publisher Team17 just a day after the developer announced that Ready or Not will have a school shooting level.
Update June 18 at 1:13PM (ET): Ready or Not is now back on Steam and is able to be purchased. According to a tweet sent out by VOID Interactive, the game was taken down from Steam due to a "suggested trademark infringement" in the game's new "Night Club" map (mentioned above).
VOID Interactive says that they have removed the potentially infringing materials from their game. They have also removed the infringing references and media from all of their social channels and websites.
According to some user responses, the issue was that the name of the nightclub used in-game was very similar to the name of a real club based in the United Kingdom. You can read their full response below.
Special thanks to K-16 for mentioning that there was an update to this story.
Also, I've had this game on my radar for a while. I have it on my Steam account. VOID even sent me a desk pad way back when because I inquired about getting access to the game long before it was ever on Steam. They weren't able to do that but sent me the pad instead that I've been using to this day since it's just very convenient.
Still, I have not played it yet though. Was waiting for the not Early Access release. There's also been a lot of just really questionable stuff by the devs with this game. The school shooting level. This nightclub level out on the anniversary of the Pulse mass shooting. The inclusion of "placeholder" assets that included: "Red Pill" branded "Nogginjoggers", "Bonor Health" branded vitamins, NPCs that had lines like "My mom has a Mexican maid, you might know her." and a store named "Whore Foods."
There was also another vitamin box that references the Pepe meme. Now... I don't really have a problem with Pepe as Pepe. I know that the alt-right or 4chan trolls try to turn that frog into a symbol for their cause, as they tend to do with a lot of innocent things. But even the creator of Pepe is fighting hard against that sort of thing from happening, which I can appreciate and support. Plus I'm so used to seeing him in various emotes on Twtich across all channels that it's just super hard to think of that frog as anything nefarious.
VOID said that a lot of that content was placeholder created by a contractor that no longer works with them. They said those assets would be replaced as development continues. This was back in January and I have no idea if those changes were made yet or will still be made.
That all said, this is now at least the third time that the developer has had to issue a statement of apology for something included in their game. I can't tell if this was just a string of accidents, poor luck, or if maybe they're trying to push some boundaries to see what they can get away with before people notice and they walk it back a bit. You know, score some points with the shitty Gamersâ„¢ and then score some points with sane people when they fix their "mistake" sort of deal. I don't know.
Also, VOID Interactive had merchandise? Huh, a branded desk pad... Neat!
I haven't played it yet (waiting for a bigger discount), so I don't know if the assets the contractor created were replaced yet, but I also wasn't aware of how much content has hurtful levels of trolling. It's a similar reason why I'm conflicted in buying Ion Fury, though from what you're telling me it seems Void Interactive goes further than what Voidpoint did.
This is a game that looks like it could really scratch the SWAT 4 itch I've been having for years. Epsilon was also something I wanted, but development stopped and Christian seems happier at Epic Games now.
And yet what you've told me makes me feel utterly conflicted on whether or not I would enjoy this game, knowing how much hurtful trolling this has, and why they would get caught so many times doing so. Damn it, I don't know if I want this game even on a discount now.
And yes, I do find Pepe to be repurposed/ruined into something of a hate symbol. Good to hear the creator doesn't approve of that.