Digital Homicide have responded to Valve’s removal of their games from Steam, and now appear to be preparing legal action against the company. The studio has released their own statement, addressing the removal of their games from Steam on Friday.
The statement addresses harassment in Steam comments and Valve not taking action against offenders. It’s a lengthy post, so to keep the context, here it is in full along with a selection of examples they are highlighting.
First i’d like to briefly respond to Doug Lombardi’s official statement about Digital Homicide and its owners.  I’d like to give some context to his official statement “Valve has stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers.” What has actually transpired was a lack of resolution from Steam in regards to moderation of their platform which might sound like a tough job to do, but coming from a company that brags its profitability per employee is higher than google, it just shows a reckless disregard for for the well being of their community for profits.  We submitted numerous reports and sent multiple emails in regards to individuals making personal attacks, harassment, and more on not only us but on other Steam customers who were actually interested in our products.  The lawsuit that was submitted in regards to a handful of Steam users has been labeled by the media and now by Doug Lombardi’s(a Valve representative) statement as “being hostile to Steam users” in general which is incorrect.  The lawsuit recently filed is solely in regards to individuals where no resolution was able to be obtained from Steam to provide a safe environment for us to conduct business.  By removing us for defending ourselves against harassment Steam is openly stating you cannot defend yourself from examples like these:
A comment from a steam user who was reported a multitude of times with over 2,000 posts over 18 months and never taken care of for ongoing harassment.
A comment from a steam user who was reported and never taken care of that harassed ongoing
Here is another user who was flagged and a moderator actually banned someone for disruptive behavior but the original poster wants me to kill myself, mentions my family and has a moderation flag.
When someone bothers you on say a platform like Facebook and you find the need to ban them, the Facebook response after you ban is “Sorry you had this experience” and then that person is removed from being able to post on your page.  Steam’s stance is what just happened to us.  By removing us they have taken the stance that users have the right to harass me, tell me I should kill myself, and insult my family . If I try to defend myself against said actions then I lose my family’s income.  If it wasn’t for 2 years of experience of dealing with Steam on a regular basis, this disgusting stance would seem shocking to me.  The only thing that prevented me seeking legal counsel for a long list of breach of contracts, interference with business, and anti-trust issues was the fear of losing my family’s income.  Since that has been taken away I am seeking legal representation.  The case will benefit from a long list of organized documentation of events that have happened over the past 2 years including dates, screenshots, emails, and more on over 100 infractions in need of litigation.
The statement was likely posted by the studios’ James Romine who now has nothing to lose now that the revenue stream from Steam has stopped. He’s seeking legal counsel to take further action against Valve and is encouraging anyone who wants to take on the case to get in touch. Somehow I doubt anyone would want to take this on.
The removal of their games from Steam came after issuing a subpoena to Valve on Friday requesting they release details of 100 Steam users who had left negative reviews or comments about their games.
Published: Sep 18, 2016 03:34 pm