'Active Shooter' game lets players act out a school shooting. Parkland parents are angry

Show Caption Hide Caption 'Active Shooter' is pulled after school shooting criticism Controversial video game "Active Shooter," which allows players to assume the role of a school shooter, has been pulled from release. Nathan Rousseau Smith has the story.

Lawmakers and parents of school shooting victims expressed anger at an upcoming video game allowing players to either stop or commit a school shooting.

The game, called Active Shooter, was scheduled to launch on June 6, according to its web page on the video game marketplace Steam. Valve, which runs Steam, said late Tuesday it had removed the game's developer and publisher from the platform.

Active Shooter was described as a "dynamic SWAT simulator" where players can choose to work as the member of a SWAT team attempting to disarm the shooter, or the shooter themselves.

A box to the left of the screen keeps track of how many police officers and civilians were killed. A video featuring the game briefly shows what appears to be the shooter firing at civilians as they try to run away.

Parents of victims of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting have since expressed outrage at the pending launch of the game.

"I have seen and heard many horrific things over the past few months since my daughter was the victim of a school shooting and is now dead in real life. This game may be one of the worst," said Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was among the students killed during February's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, in a statement on Twitter.

I have seen and heard many horrific things over the past few months since my daughter was the victim of a school shooting and is now dead in real life. This game may be one of the worst. — Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 27, 2018

"The last thing we need is a simulated training on school shootings," said Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in Parkland, in an interview with The Miami Herald. "Video game designers should think of the influence they hold. This really crosses the line."

Florida Senator Bill Nelson also condemned the game in a statement on Twitter. "This is inexcusable," he wrote. "Any company that develops a game like this in wake of such a horrific tragedy should be ashamed of itself."

This is inexcusable. Any company that develops a game like this in wake of such a horrific tragedy should be ashamed of itself. https://t.co/jjp6LxNWhC — Senator Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) May 28, 2018

A petition posted on Change.org had urged Valve, to pull the game ahead of its launch.

Valve spokesperson Doug Lombardi told USA TODAY it had removed the developer Revived Games and publisher ACID from Steam.

"This developer and publisher is, in fact, a person calling himself Ata Berdiyev, who had previously been removed last fall when he was operating as "[bc]Interactive" and "Elusive Team," Lombardi said in an email. "Ata is a troll, with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation. His subsequent return under new business names was a fact that came to light as we investigated the controversy around his upcoming title."

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.