Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak will unblock Steam after the download of a combat game featuring Jesus Christ and Buddha among others was disabled by the entertainment platform. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 ― Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak rescinded today an order to block Steam after the entertainment platform disabled the download of a combat game featuring Jesus Christ and Buddha among others.

“steam had disabled the download of the game in Malaysia in accordance with our warning & request last night.Will uplift the blocking today,” he posted on his official Twitter account early this morning.

The announcement came less than 12 hours after Steam took down the combat video game following the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s earlier block of local access to it.

The gaming store is run by US-based video game developer Valve Corporation.

Steam is now accessible on Malaysian ISPs again.

The controversial game made by Taiwan developer Digital Crafter had been sold for RM11.40 on Steam since its release September 4. Its sale is now banned in the country.

Access to the Steam online store on Malaysian ISPs was restored some three hours after the government blocked it.

Some local gamers called on the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to just request Steam disable “Fight of Gods” for download instead of shutting down access to the entire game store.

“Please send a request to steam for make this game unavailable to Malaysia (most of us don't care about this game too), blocking entire steam store might seen easier but it only make us think our gov so unprofessional. Thank you,” Ling Cheng Xian posted on MCMC’s Facebook page.

Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism deputy president Datuk RS Mohan Shan had called for the game to be banned, local paper theSundaily reported yesterday.

Apart from Jesus and Buddha, the game also featured the biblical character Moses and ancient deities from Greek and Norse mythology like Zeus and Odin.

The Taiwanese game’s lead producer Ken Wei was reported telling UK paper Daily Mail earlier this week that “Fight of Gods will never include depictions from Islam”.

Islam prohibits the depictions of its God and prophets. However, Jesus and Moses are also regarded as prophets in Islam.