"And that sex scene is the only goal of the game."

Indeed, that's the main problem. Still, not having the PC games that the Japanese people /do/ play can't be doing Valve any favours.

Yes, Valve do not allow adult content on their platform. However, a lot of the most popular Japanese PC games do not feature adult content. And for the ones that do, there often exists a version with this content removed. I don't really see this as a problem.

But that's the thing. Approximately 70% of PC games in Japan are visual novels. With 70% of Japan's PC games banned from Steam, it's hard to see how Steam can be popular.

I do understand that the lack of popularity of Steam is not entirely because of the lack of Japanese games on the service. And yes, it's true that Japanese companies aren't submitting games to Steam because of that. However, this is a vicious circle that needs to be broken out of.

That's the impression I get from talking to people from game publishers who submitted games to Steam and were refused. Companies won't usually discuss things like this, which may lead to a perception that Steam is more open than it really is.

07th Expansion, Aconite, Alcot, Caramel Box, Circus, Clock Up, Innocent Grey, Minori, Navel, Nexton, Nitroplus, Overdrive, Overflow, Softhouse-Seal, Tarte, Xuse…

Perhaps that may be so. However, even games with English versions have been refused.

My comment was poorly worded, sorry. Essentially, I'm making two points:

I won't disclose specific examples, however there are numerous Western publishers who have tried to release Japanese games on Steam (with full English localisations) but have been refused by Valve who essentially said "we do not feel that these games are fit for our service". This is based on information I got from…

I've been interested in this game for a while and might get it sometime. Having racing sections in a visual novel isn't something I've seen before, so I'm quite curious.

Steins;Gate, Clannad and Ever17 do not contain any adult content at all. Muv-Luv and Fate/stay night originally contained adult content but have later been released in "all-ages" formats. The Baldr Sky games are the only ones I mentioned that are completely adults-only.

The problem with Steam is that they refuse to sell any of the top Japanese PC games. Where's Muv-Luv? Where's Steins;Gate? Where's Baldr Sky? Where's Clannad? Where's Ever17? Where's Fate/stay night?

That… kinda makes sense. Still, that doesn't stop Nintendo from just setting up servers outside of Germany and hosting 18-rated content on that.

Nintendo of Europe may be based in Germany, but that doesn't mean they don't have offices in other countries. Surely they can simply go through Nintendo UK (which is, remarkably enough, based in the UK) to bypass this law?

Related article: "Blowing on Cartridges Didn’t Help Them, It Hurt Them"

This is good to hear about, but why-oh-why did she have to join the Japanese Restoration Party?! It'll be sad if no one votes for her because of it, and it will also be sad if people /do/ vote for her and they end up winning! Everyone knows Ishihara will cause more of a mess if he gets into power — we certainly don't…

PC gaming is certainly cheaper than console gaming, but that doesn't mean it's exactly cheap either. Sure, there are brilliant games available for free, but there are also many unmissable games that cost upwards of £125/$200. You could say the same for console games too, but I just feel that the cost of gaming will be…

Honestly, I feel that a large part of why so many games are Japan-only is because the Japanese companies are afraid of a backlash against their games if they were to release them overseas. This has happened in the past to games with objectionable content (see RapeLay, for example), but even for games that are…

"PEGI 18, though, includes not just all of the Adult-rated ESRB games, but also a bunch of games that would rate as Mature stateside."