Last weekend, Nighthawks was mistakenly classified as “Adults Only” by Valve. This put Nighthawks into a category usually reserved for porn games and rendered it almost invisible on the Steam storefront. It was hidden in searches, required credit card–based age verification in some territories, and was removed from some territories entirely.
At the risk of disappointing some players, Nighthawks is NOT porn. Sexy? Sure. Deals with mature themes? Definitely. Porn? Most definitely not. Anyone playing Nighthawks expecting lots of sex and nudity will leave very disappointed. Any sexy scenes are text only, and the few scenes with nudity are presented with strategically placed props and hands covering up the naughty bits.
Suffice to say, the adult rating gave us a stressful couple of days as we frantically tried to appeal this decision. To Valve’s credit, they were very helpful in expediting the review on our appeal so we could get the AO rating dropped and the game itself approved for our scheduled release next week. So all is well that ends well. We don’t know exactly why this happened in the first place, but we’re grateful for Valve’s responsiveness and speed in making it right.
As for what this means for Nighthawks? Well, it was stressful to go through and we were basically swimming in cortisol the past few days, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a net positive. When I posted my frustrations on social media, I did not expect it to go viral. We got some press coverage out of it and wishlists essentially doubled overnight. All good things! I wish I could say I planned this as a guerrilla marketing stunt, but I’m not that dumb and I’m not that smart!
I am also very aware that I am extremely lucky to have the fanbase and the (relative) clout to make a bit of noise and get this handled quickly. Many devs in the same situation wouldn’t be able to do that. At the very least, our situation has made Valve aware that this is a problem many indies making mature games may face during the submission process. Hopefully it means that others will have an easier time of it going forward.
Now that it’s over and I’ve gotten a decent night’s sleep, I can look back at what happened and think, “Yeah, OK, that was kinda funny.” I’ll be dining out on this story for a long time. But that said… I’ll be more than happy to never have to go through this again.
Nighthawks launches September 22nd for PC, Mac, and Linux. Regardless of what happens next, all of us at Wadjet Eye and Curiosity Engine are immensely grateful for the well-wishes and support you gave us during this whole thing. More than we can express.
Thank you all!
-Dave, Richard, et al
