Steam developer Valve has pledged to sponsor the upcoming Game Devs of Colour Expo, an annual videogame conference now into its fifth year that’s “focused on putting game creators of colour at the forefront.” The news comes via an expo organiser on Twitter, and follows the recent decision of several indie devs to remove their game from Steam in the absence of a statement from the company regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, earlier this week, Art Squool dev Julian Glander posted a tweet announcing his decision to pull all of his games from Steam, alongside a screenshot of a message accompanying his ‘removing an app from sale’ request on the platform. In this, he explained his reason tied into the absence of a statement from Valve regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. A few other indie devs have similarly removed their games from Steam, too.
Following this message, Game Devs of Colour Expo organiser Shawn Alexander Allen has tweeted: “Valve has pledged to be a big sponsor” of the event, adding “(there will be a cool side effect to this we will announce soon)”.
He also says Valve “supported the Black Voices in Gaming event hosted by Justin Woodward”, who is the founder of the Media Indie Exchange. “Decent first steps,” he adds.
GamesIndustry.biz reports a Valve spokesperson has confirmed “Shawn’s tweet is accurate” to the site, though without offering any further details. PCGamesN has also reached out to Valve for confirmation and comment, and will update this story with any new information.