Another FMV romance game bites the dust thanks to Steam overly draconian review process that seems to be heavily biased against live-action games while 3D animated porn games continue to flood the store. Sweet Hamster Days has been removed from the store, just 10 weeks after it first appeared. Wishlists will now show blanks.
A page for the demo appeared not too long ago but was rapidly removed, presumably because they submitted the demo to release it during Next Fest. It was likely rejected by the review process and now the full game was either rejected or pulled. The developers did post an update about the demo, which said (via translation):
“The demo release of “Hamukoi” and participation in Steam Next Fest have been postponed. This is due to multiple issues requiring fixes that arose during final adjustments.”
This vague message does not reveal that the problem may have been censorship issues. Sweet Hamster days featured 3 Japanese gravure models and it is likely that the game’s content was more revealing than Chinese FMV games. There is no mention of the removal on their social media accounts or any indication that they will try to modify it.
It will be interesting to see what other games suffer a similar fate. Roommates, Romance, and Ringing Hearts is also Japanese, and although it does not seem as overtly sexual as Sweet Hamster Days, it might also come down to some luck. It is unclear if the developers of Sweet Hamster Days will try to release it via another platform.
Update 2025-10-28: Developers have updated their social media to confirm they are trying to release it via another platform, but did not mention which one or when that might be.
Steam really out here approving full-on gore and nazi sexualizing games but draws the line at a bit of skin in an FMV. Their policy team must be flipping a coin to take decisions everytime a new FMV game releases.
If only we had an adults-only section for FMV games like they have for animated 3D porn games.