Booted From Steam, Digital Homicide Looks To Sue Valve As Well

After having all of its games removed from Steam following their decision to file a lawsuit against 100 anonymous Steam users, Digital Homicide has escalated matters by announcing that it is looking for “legal representation” for a lawsuit against Steam, and Valve, itself.

If you’re not up to date with the latest ongoings with Digital Homicide, they are as follows. James Romine, the co-founder of Digital Homicide, last week filed a suit against 100 anonymous Jane/John Does on Steam that, in their eyes, were allegedly responsible for criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit cyber bulling, continual criminal property damage for over a year, tortious interference, stalking, harassment, conspiracy to vandalise and destroy personal property, and more.

The court filing, which you can read here, also subpoenaed Valve for the information of the 100 users involved. That subpoena was granted, incidentally,

Understandably, Valve refused to put up with that. They told Kotaku that the company “has stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers”, and subsequently removed all of the company’s games from Steam.

And if you’re already suing a critic for $US15 million and 100 random gamers on Steam, you might as well sue Steam itself. In a page established by Digital Homicide, the company says the lawsuit was “solely in regards to individuals where no resolution was ablet o be obtained from Steam to provide a safe environment for us to conduct business” and that the assertion that the lawsuit was hostile to Steam users was “incorrect”.

“When someone bothers you on say a platform like Facebook and you find the need to ban them, the Facebook response after you ban is “Sorry you had this experience” and then that person is removed from being able to post on your page,” Digital Homicide argues. “Steam’s stance is what just happened to us. By removing us they have taken the stance that users have the right to harass me, tell me I should kill myself, and insult my family.”

It goes on to say that Digital Homicide refused to seek action against Steam earlier out of concern for “losing my family’s income”, something which has now happened with Digital Homicide’s games being pulled from Steam.

I’ve contacted Valve for comment, although the company was yet to respond at the time of writing and it’s unusual for companies in any case to comment on litigation, ongoing or otherwise. I’ll update this post, however, should either party issue a statement.