The anti-free speech feminist group “Equality Now” has apparently succeeded in forcing the publisher of “rape simulator” game RapeLay into withdrawing the game from sale, as the game has quietly disappeared completely from the publisher’s homepage, and the pages of most retailers.

Equality Now, an anti-porn feminist group which organises its busybody members into campaigns of letter writing harassment intent on forcing officials into compliance, recently called for adult games featuring “violence against women and girls” to be banned (although tellingly they cited research from an explicitly “anti-pornography” group, rather suggesting their real aims are somewhat broader), after learning of Amazon’s recent bungling.

The game’s publisher, Illusion, previously told the group to mind their own business as the game was solely for the Japanese market, and quite legal there.

However, after the do-nothing group’s shrill call for a ban was published, mass media outlets hungry for Japan-bashing fare picked up the story.

Strangely, none of the reports mentioned the fact that “violence against women” is almost twenty times more common in the US than it is in rape simulator world leader Japan, instead choosing to uncritically repeat the tired calumny that Japan is a rigid patriarchy in which women languish as practical chattel.

This media attention seems to have tipped the balance somewhere, for at the time of writing, no mention of the game is to be found on Illusion’s pages. Prominent English language disclaimers remind international fans that their products are for use in Japan only.

With no statement from Illusion, and no other information, the reasoning behind the utterly craven and reprehensible abandonment of free speech is not clear.

Harder BDSM-centric titles are not a speciality of Illusion, so their other titles are mostly not along these lines. However, they are still stocking their “Battle Raper” series, which involves beating female opponents into sexual submission in a 3D fighting game interspersed with sex scenes. The demo is available here.

You can read about the specific complaints made by Equality Now in the previous article, and if you are of a mind you can contact them from their page.

This behaviour sets a disturbing precedent; there are many more extreme titles than RapeLay available in Japan, encompassing everything from AV to ero-manga; if publishers are willing to fold at the slightest breeze of criticism from a group which is not even Japanese, and from complaints without any legal weight whatsoever, it would appear their future is in doubt, as displays of weakness will only encourage further feminist aggression.