Valve is Now Sponsoring the Game Devs of Color Expo

Well. That was fast.

You might recall that yesterday, a bunch of devs decided that Valve’s lack of response to the Black Lives Matter movement was the last straw, and out of protest, decided to pull some of their games from the Steam platform. You might also recall that while I was supportive of the gesture I was also moderately dismissive that it would amount to anything.

Well, I guess I got a big ol’ taste of my own foot today, because while Valve still hasn’t released any kind of comment, they have done something even better – taken action. Because it’s been confirmed by organizer Shawn Alexander Alle that Valve isn’t just going to give money to the event, they’re going to be a “big sponsor”.

The event itself, which will be hosted by Justin Woodward, director of development studio Interabang and organiser of the recent Guerrilla Collective digital games festival, is set to take place on September 19th.

Now, it’s not clear if Valve did this in response to the indie dev protests, the larger Black Lives Matter movement, or if they had always planned to sponsor the event, but in any case the timing of this reveal is certainly… interesting.

No word yet on if the protesting devs will put their games back on Steam in response.