A number of indie developers are removing their games from Steam citing Valve’s failure to address the Black Lives Matter movement. By no longer profiting from the store, these devs refuse to remain “complicit with their silence on hate” in favour of “white angry male gamers.”
While Valve has never said anything to defend itself, organiser Shawn Alexander Allen pointed out that Valve is actually quite active when it comes to supporting the black gamedev community, as well as other people of color in the industry. Valve, Allen tweeted, “pledged to be a big sponsor of the Game Devs of Color Expo.” They also supported the Black Voices in Gaming event hosted by Media Indie Exchange founder Justin Woodward.
“Decent first steps,” Allen says. “Definitely better than the performances other companies have done.”
Valve confirmed to gamesindustry.biz that “Shawn’s tweet is accurate.”