Valve has removed a game from its British Steam storefront following a request from the UK’s counter-terrorism unit.
The FPS/TPS Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque – which describes itself as “address[ing] the Israel x Palestine conflict from a Palestinian perspective” – was removed when Steam contacted developer Nidal Nijm to inform him it had “received a request from authorities in the UK to block the game and have applied such country restrictions”.
Originally released in 2022, the game was updated this month to include content reflecting aspects of Hamas’ 7th October terrorist attack. A trailer for the update shows fighters that appear to be from Hamas landing in an Israeli base and graphically executing Israeli soldiers.
In an email to the Brazilian developer, Steam allegedly said: “We’ve received a request from authorities in the UK to block the game and have applied such country restrictions”. When the developer reportedly asked if there was “a specific reason” for the UK ban and said “my game is not too much different than any other shooter game on Steam, like Call of Duty”, he was told: