Chaos; Head Noah will not be released on Steam: too many complaints requested, according to Spike Chunsoft

Chaos; Head Noah will not be released on Steam: too many complaints requested, according to Spike Chunsoft

Chaos; Head Noah will not be released on Steam

The Japanese publisher Spike Chunsoft has announced that the visual novel Chaos; Head Noah will no longer be published on Steam, due to the excessive censorship of the contents required by the guidelines of the platform, which would not allow it to reach its quality standards.

The cover of Chaos; Head Noah So on October 7, 2022, the game's launch date, we won't see it appear in the Valve store. Given that it was the only one planned and announced for the PC version and that the publisher is now looking for alternatives (read other stores), Chaos; Head Noah, bundled with Chaos; Child, will only be released on Nintendo Switch, where it hasn't been. censored in any way. After all, it is already available in a standalone version, so the lack of intervention by Nintendo is easily verifiable.

It is strange in 2022 to know that Nintendo has become the beacon of videogame freedom of expression, after a past of very strong content control. Be that as it may, it seems that developers of particularly strong and controversial works find it less difficult to come out on Nintendo Switch than on other platforms.

Chaos; Head Noah was originally launched on Xbox 360 on February 26, 2009 in Japan, then it arrived on PSP on June 24, 2010. Also in 2010, but on November 18, it was released on the App Store for iOS systems. On January 24, 2012, it was released on Android and on November 22 of the same year on PS3. Finally, on 21 August 2014 it was released on PS Vita. The standalone version for Nintendo Switch was released on February 24, 2022.

In short, it is a well-known title, seen on many platforms. It is not clear why Steam, where pornographic and very violent games abound, has decided to censor it.

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Steam Users Frustrated After Game Gets Canceled a Week Before Releasing

A new Steam release, Chaos;Head Noah, was canceled this week just a few days before it was supposed to launch on the PC platform, and Steam users aren't too pleased with the development. Spike Chunsoft, the publisher responsible for Chaos;Head Noah's English release, confirmed on Friday that the Steam release planned for October 7th would not happen while citing 'Steam's guideline-required changes' as the reason for why the release won't happen. The game will still come to the Nintendo Switch, however.


Spike Chunsoft addressed the plans for the English version of the game in a post on the publisher's site. According to the publisher, a Steam release would've meant changing parts of the game to adhere to the platform's guidelines, but Spike Chunsoft felt those changes would make it so that the game fell short of the publisher's standards.


'Spike Chunsoft, Inc. today regrets to announce that it will not be able to release CHAOS;HEAD NOAH on Steam as originally planned due to Steam's guideline-required changes to the game's content,' the publisher said. 'Spike Chunsoft, Inc. believes these changes would not allow the game to be released to its standards.'


Chaos;Head Noah, for those unfamiliar with the game, was originally released in 2008 simply as Chaos;Head before being renamed and rereleased on different platforms years later with added content. It's a visual novel that comes from the same developer as Steins;Gate and contains scenes that sometimes depict content which could be considered disturbing and, at times, suggestive.


Despite those rereleases, an English version of the game had not happened yet. That's why visual novel fans were excited to hear of this Western localization, but those same fans are now frustrated that the Steam release isn't happening. In responses to the announcement, users on social platforms questioned why Chaos;Head Noah's content was deemed unacceptable by Steam's standards while other far more obscene games are allowed to be sold there. Further discussions lamented the fact that Steam's guidelines for content are vague themselves which leads to situations like this where some games are allowed but others aren't. Visual novels in particular seem to have issues with these sorts of releases, some users posited.


The Nintendo Store's listing for the game is still up, and as Spike Chunsoft said, that Switch release will still happen on October 7th as planned. For those who were keen on getting the game on the PC platform, the publisher said it'll be looking into options for alternative storefronts to perhaps make that release a reality after all.