A member of the U.K. Parliament is calling for a government review of Steam after Rape Day was removed from the platform.
As reported by Variety, Hannah Bardell called the game “utterly abhorrent material”, and implored the government to “commit to getting around the table and sorting this issue for good.”
This comes following Valve’s decision to remove the game from the storefront after it was ruled unfit for the platform due to the fact that it possessed “unknown costs and risks”.
Rape Day is a 3D visual novel that centers around committing violence and assault against women during a zombie apocalypse, with developer Desk Plant encouraging players to “verbally harass, kill, and rape women as [they] choose to progress the story.”
For the most part, Valve says anything that isn’t “illegal or straight up trolling,” is given the greenlight, but notes in yesterday’s statement that their policy surrounding similar content to Rape Day should be “reactionary.”
“A game of this nature has no place in our society,” Bardell said while speaking before Britain’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee earlier today.
“I’m glad that it has been pulled by gaming site Steam, but their response was woeful. It did not even accept or acknowledge the risk it could pose.”
Bardell’s call for a government review urging parliament to “strengthen the legislation around this area” was supported by First Minister of the Scottish Parliament Shona Robison.
“For any online gaming platform to allow the publishing of a so-called game, which glorifies the killing and raping of women, would be disgusting and deeply offensive,” Robinson said.
It isn’t entirely clear what a government review might look like since Valve is a privately-owned company based in the United States, but according to Scotsman, culture secretary Jeremy Wright has agreed to investigate how the game was allowed to be developed and set for release.