FMV horror game Vile: Exhumed was not banned from sale on Steam because of its hardcore depiction of violence against women, psychologically roiling story, or body bags, but because the storefront decided Vile contained sexual content that it does not have.
The game, by developer Cara Cadaver, is not alone in finding itself recently shunned from Steam. Valve's marketplace has recently been – to substantial controversy – delisting games it deems "adult," but Vile stands out among the damned: Cadaver makes it clear in a statement on Vile is Banned, a new website dedicated to hosting Vile as a free download, that the game contains "no uncensored nudity, no depictions of sex acts, and no pornography whatsoever."
"The game covers topics of assault, abuse, and entitlement, and uses a combination of FMV and practical effects to create images as horrifying as the themes," Cadaver explains. In Vile, you crawl through an old desktop computer to find out what became of retired adult film actress Candy Corpse by force – slipping through password-protected documents to watch snuff films, scan black market internet forums as nauseating and powerful as rancid cologne.
"This was never a secret," Cadaver says in her statement. But emotionally challenging content isn't inherently NSFW, either.
"What this actually results in is taking power and storytelling away from women, other marginalized artists, and ultimately, from everyone," Cadaver argues about the Steam ban.
In response, she and publisher DreadXP have made the decision to let Vile live as "shareware"; DreadXP will "be donating all of their portion of the profits, and I will be donating a portion of mine," Cadaver says, "totaling in 50% of the profits from the game being donated to Red Door Family Shelter, a Toronto based charity that focuses on helping families, refugees, and women who are escaping violence."
"As soon as we realized that the game had been banned," DreadXP director Hunter Bond adds in a press release, "the conversation internally with Cara became about what we collectively could do to do right by her and her work.
"In the face of widespread attempted censorship, it didn't feel like a time for half-measures and compromise, so we all decided that releasing the game into the wild where it could never be made unavailable by a single platform felt like the best option, and strongest message."
GamesRadar+ has reached out to Cara Cadaver for comment and will update this article as necessary.
