Back in May Japanese game dev Viv announced on their socials that their psychological horror BL visual novel, This Game is Not Real had been pulled from Steam ahead of it’s release date despite garnering an impressive 24,000 wishlists.
The rationale behind the decision being a generic “not meeting Steam’s release criteria” statement. Which given the sheer amount of AI slop and porn titles Steam allows to flood their platform, is ridiculous to say the least. Undeterred This Game is Not Real was released on DLsite on May 30th, with both Japanese and Korean language support.
This Game Is Not Real is a meta-horror visual novel where you take on the role of an in-development game and you interact with your slightly delusional game developer as they attempt to debug their creation, and guide the game to “completion.” Much like Viv’s previous work, Saihate Station, this new game promises to deliver a reality bending psychological horror experience that blends point-and-click story elements with the in depth narrative of a visual novel. This Game Is Not Real touches on themes of obsession.
After playing Saihate Station I was excited to play This Game Is Not Real, but Steam pulling the game from their platform put the status of the English translation in limbo. That is until publisher, JAST BLUE announced during Anime NYC 2026 that they would be working with Viv on an official English language release. This translation will be available through their online store, where fans can currently purchase the Japanese version of the game and its soundtrack.
While we don’t have an official release date for the English translation, fans can support Viv via their socials and by checking out the official website for This Game Is Not Real! Also, Viv announced earlier this week that the Steam page for their next title, DISK-Y is now live with a planned release date of November 2026!
About Viv
They are a Japanese illustrator and game developer. Their website describes them as someone who, “Depicts unfortunate men with a warm, picture-book-like touch. Develops emotionally stirring games with deep themes such as the suffering of life and human relationships.”
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Oh geez. Yeah, Steam and Itch.io’s censoring of mature games is ongoing. Payment processors haven’t budged. This reminds me to check how call campaign is doing, what the results of that were, and if there’s any more protest actions I can take.