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Oct 11, 2023

Nintendoes what Valve don’t: Game barred from Steam will launch on Switch

Kyle Orland - Sep 30, 2022 9:50 pm UTC Japanese publisher Spike

Kyle Orland - Sep 30, 2022 9:50 pm UTC

Japanese publisher Spike Chunsoft announced that the first official English translation of visual novel Chaos;Head Noah won't be coming to Steam as planned "due to Steam's guideline-required changes to the game's content." But while the game is apparently too risqué for Steam, the family-friendly folks at Nintendo apparently have no problem with a Switch version that Spike Chunsoft says will still launch in the US on October 7 as scheduled.

"Spike Chunsoft, Inc. believes these [Steam guideline-required] changes would not allow the game to be released to its standards," the publisher said in its announcement. "The company is looking into delivering the title through alternative storefronts, and when details are decided will make another formal announcement. Until then your patience and understanding is appreciated."

Chaos;Head Noah was initially listed for Steam pre-sale in April, but that page was taken down in August, according to tracking site SteamDB. At the time, that led to some concerns about the eventual fate of the Steam version, which Spike Chunsoft finally confirmed today.

Valve's apparent push for content restrictions comes even though the extremely similar thematic sequel Chaos;Child has been available in English on Steam since 2019 (following its initial 2014 release in Japan on the Xbox One). The English PS4 version of Chaos;Child received an M for Mature rating from the ESRB, which described game scenes of strangling, torture, and "exposed brains" alongside sexual content like "two female characters moaning off screen while discussing each other's breasts."

Chaos;Head Noah is an enhanced port of Chaos;Head, the game that launched the cult-classic Science Adventure series of visual novels (which also includes Steins;Gate and its sequels). The game follows a series of murders and suicides in Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood and allows players to change the story progression by indulging in various positive or negative "delusions." Some of those delusions can reportedly get extremely gory and/or suggest (but not directly show) imminent sexual violence.

"I don't think it gets much worse than anything already in Steam's library," PQube Games Head of Localization Andrew Hodgson (who worked on the English translation of Steins;Gate) told Ars Technica of the "titillating and violent content" in the game. "It's far from adult, even if it can be quite gruesome in certain scenes."

The original Chaos;Head was originally released for Japanese PCs in 2008 before the enhanced Noah hit the Xbox 360 in 2009. That console port (and a later Vita re-release) received CERO Z content ratings in Japan, which "assumes that the game should not be sold or distributed to those younger than 18 years old" and is roughly equivalent to an ESRB "AO for Adults Only" rating in the US. CERO's "content icon" system for that game only included a warning about "crime," however, and not violence or sexual content.

Subsequent Japanese ports of Chaos;Head Noah for the PS3, PSP, Android, and iOS were heavily edited to remove some of the more extreme images and descriptions of violence. In turn, those ports received a lower CERO D rating (roughly equivalent to the ESRB's "M for Mature" rating) in Japan. A source in the visual novel translation community (who asked to remain anonymous) confirmed that both the Switch and proposed Steam English-language versions of the game were based on this edited-down script.

A Japanese Chaos;Head port for the Nintendo Switch, released earlier this year, received the higher CERO Z rating (and "crime" content icon) despite using the edited version of the game that previously received a CERO D rating. The English translation will launch on Switch in the US next month, with an "M for Mature" rating and content descriptors that warn of "Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Language, [and] Intense Violence."