Valve pulls game from Steam after developer threatens Gabe Newell

Valve has pulled FPS Paranautical Activity from the Steam store after the game’s creator threatened Gabe Newell over Twitter.

Indie developer Mike Maulbeck took umbrage with Valve after it listed the title as available in ‘Early Access’ during a promotion on the store, when the game had recently been given a full release.

After a stream of angry tweets on the matter, describing Valve’s PC game monopoly and forced delays, the developer then tweeted “I am going to kill Gabe Newell. He is going to die”. That tweet has since been removed.

Valve confirmed to Polygon that following the threats, it had removed the Paranautical Activity’s sales page and ceased relations with the developer.

Maulbeck admitted that while he didn’t mean the statement, it “nonetheless was totally unacceptable”. He has asked Valve to consider reversing the decision, but said “there’s probably nothing to be done”.

The developer later tweeted the game was still available on non-Steam platforms, though sales were well short of the levels seen from Valve’s store.