Domina was delisted from Steam last night after its dev Dolphin Barn Incorporated used patch notes to share personal opinions.
The gladiator fighting game was available for Windows PC (via Steam), but now says ” At the request of the publisher, Domina is no longer available for sale on Steam,” although the game was self-published by Dolphin Barn.
Dolphin Barn posted the patch notes titled “We’re Out of Ideas, Mentally Unstable, Totally Degenerate, & Desperate for Clout – Lets Pretend We’re A Completely Different Game to Regain Relevance!”, a joke making fun of the concept of “deadnaming”, i.e. referring to a trans person by their original birth name.
The reasoning behind the use of patch notes for Dolphin Barn’s personal beliefs is due to the fact that Steam banned the dev from its own game’s forums for posting similar opinions and beliefs.
The patch notes then suggested changing the game’s name to DOMINUS while saying “please do not be a bigot”, adding “stop being confused and remember that DOMINA doesn’t exist and never did” but notes “DOMINUS does exist.” The developer then made comments and jokes at trans streamer Keffals (likely due to the ongoing debacle between them and Cloudflare).
The dev then listed a few real fixes for the game, only to close out with more personal beliefs like “stop destroying the innocence of children by lying to them about basic biology” and “stand up for what you believe – ask God for courage.”
Dolphin Barn then linked to a video of former trans child Chloe Cole, who spoke against the controversial California bill SB 107, which guarantees protection for minors going to the state for transgender-related medical procedures.
Valve’s message listed on the game’s hub page confirms the game was “banned by a member of Steam Support” for a “a recent announcement posted to the Domina community hub includes insults targeting another person.”
This is likely pointing to the comments and jokes made at Keffals. The message then notes the company made it clear in the prior warning that future violations would “jeopardize [their] future relationship”.
The Steam parent company then confirmed they are “ending [its] business relationship with ‘Dolphin Barn Incorporated’ and removing all associated products from sale”.