Controversial Game Hong Kong 2097 Delisted from Steam

Steam used to be the leading platform to host games, regardless of their subject matter. However, several games, due to their controversial or suggestive subject matter, have been delisted or denied approval for coming out on Steam. The game in question is Hong Kong 2097, the sequel to an unofficial SNES game titled Hong Kong 97. Hong Kong 97 was developed by HappySoft, and the sequel was developed along with KaniPro.

The Origins of Hong Kong 2097

Hong Kong 97’s writer, Yoshihisa “Kowloon” Kurosawa, who was involved with the first game, was involved with the development of the second game. Mr. Kurosawa told the South China Morning Post that he intended to make 97 “hot trash,” in response to the console gaming market, namely Nintendo due to their strict ethical standards and high royalties. He said, “I had an idea to create a cheap, vulgar game that would make fun of the industry.” He reportedly hired a developer from Enix (now Square Enix) to make the game in two days.

For 2097, the “mind-numbing” twin stick shooter aimed to be a “breath of fresh air,” against “encroaching censorship” and social media algorithms “crushing our freedom of thought.” The game features Chin Lee, a “relative” of Bruce Lee, who is the protagonist of the first game. Chin returns to take down the fictional nation of “Amurikkka” and create a utopia.

Hong Kong 2097 allegedly used generative AI to create assets. Additionally, the game has images of Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and Donald Trump, making the company at risk of being sued for using celebrity likenesses without compensating the celebrities.

Hong Kong 97

The original game, released in 1995, had graphic imagery in the form of a low-resolution image of an actual dead body, when players got a game over. The dead body was reportedly a victim of the Bosnian War. The game’s intro featured a background image of Holocaust victims in a concentration camp. The game was also unofficially released on a floppy disk.

The original game’s story involved Chin killing 1.2 billion Chinese nationals, who came to mainland China after Hong Kong gained independence from Great Britain. According to Automaton Media, Kurosawa wished that fans of the apparent cult-classic Hong Kong 97 didn’t take the game so seriously and to stop asking questions about the game.