Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
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Title: Banned Steam game VILE: Exhumed is back as a free shareware title

Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2025 22:52:20 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/banned-steam-...

After her game was banned from sale on Steam in a baffling decision with no
appeal option, solo developer Cara Cadaver has made VILE: Exhumed available
as shareware under a Creative Commons license. The project can be downloaded
for free, but players can opt to donate in support of the solo developer's
work. Both Cara and publisher DreadXP will pay forward those donations, with
50 percent of the game's profits being given to the Toronto-based charity Red
Door Family Shelter. The group aids families, refugees and women who are
escaping violence.

Both Steam and Itch.io have recently adopted sweeping and vague policies
regarding their approach to projects with adult content due to pressure from
payment processors. Itch.io has begun re-indexing some projects, but only
free ones.

These changes have disproportionately impacted projects by underrepresented
and queer creators, according to a statement from the International Game
Developers Association that condemned the broad delisting of adult games. In
her post announcing the new distribution plan for VILE: Exhumed, Cara summed
up the situation pretty aptly: "What this actually results in is taking power
and storytelling away from women, other marginalized artists, and ultimately,
from everyone."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/banned-steam-...
free-shareware-title-225220847.html?src=rss

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