Digital Homicide Drop Lawsuit Against Steam Users

Digital Homicide have dropped their lawsuit against 100 pseudonymous Steam users, explaining that they can't fund it because their business is now trashed. The two-man studio are known for bad games like Galactic Hitman and The Slaughtering Grounds - or, perhaps more accurately, for the stink raised around them. This came to a head last month, when Valve pulled all Digital Homicide games from the Steam store after Digital Homicide subpoenaed them to reveal the identity of 100 Steam users - users whom the devs claimed had harassed them and harmed their business. Well, now Digital Homicide are getting out of games and taking this lawsuit with them.

"The case dismissal was only due to financial reasons caused by the removal of our games," Digital Homicide's James Romine told TechRaptor. He continued:

"I believe the case was very solid. There were in excess of 140 false statements by the 11 steam users, tens of thousands of posts harassing myself and my customers, three direct interference with written contracts with third parties by steam users (some of which were competitors), and much more."

Well, the merits of those allegations won't be tested in court. Basically, the whole thing looks like a big mess of people over-reacting to Digital Homicide releasing bad games, Digital Homicide over-reacting to those over-reactions, then... it all spiralled awfully, as things often seem to.

Romine says that "insufficient harassment control mechanisms" is one of Steam's big problems.

This seems like the end of Digital Homicide too. "It's destroyed," Romine said. "It's been stomped into the ground from a thousand directions and use is discontinued." He said that he's "going back into the work force" - but he will continue to watch what happens with Steam.

The case is being dismissed without prejudice, mind - meaning they can retry later - so who knows if we'll be back for another round of rubbernecking.

Digital Homicide's suit again Jim Sterling, a games critic who's criticised the company and their games, is still not settled.