Gaming

Controversial Steam Developer Removed from Store After Latest Outburst

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A developer known more for its outbursts on Steam rather than the games it created has been removed from Valve’s platform entirely following a transphobic post masquerading as a set of patch notes. Domina, the game most closely associated with developer Dolphin Barn Incorporated, is no longer sold on Steam following a ban which removed the developer from its own forums. The developer’s only other game on Steam has been affected by this as well and is no longer sold either.

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After posting past bemoanings like anti-mask rants, the final straw for the Domina developer was the transphobic post targeting Twitch streamer Keffals. That post has since been removed from Steam alongside an updated message on the Domina page which said the game was no longer sold there “at the request of the publisher,” though given that the game was self-published, it’s assumed that was a default message. Since then, the Steam page for Domina has been removed entirely and can only be viewed via archives.

Dolphin Farm’s second game on Steam, Corporate Lifestyle Simulator, still has an active Steam page, but it bears the same message about not being sold on the platform any longer. You can see “Major Updates” still up through Domina’s Steam Community page such as one from August 6th where the creator complained of “dozens of fraudulent reviews” posted on Steam.

Archived versions of the game’s “updates” and other messages shared on ResetEra showed that the developer had gotten a message recently where Dolphin Barn itself was banned from the game’s discussions. The message attributed to a Steam Support member made it clear that there’d been past discussions regarding the developer’s conduct and that its games would be removed from sale.

“A recent announcement posted to the Domina community hub includes insults targeting another person,” the message said. “We also notice that you are clearing a number of reported posts in your hub containing various rule violations. We made it clear in our last communication that future violations of our Rules and Guidelines like this would jeopardize our future relationship โ€“ with that in mind, we are ending our business relationship with ‘Dolphin Barn Incorporated’ and removing all associated products from sale.”

SteamDB’s records show that Domina and all associated DLC has indeed been removed from the store entirely.