Valve has pledged to sponsor the Game Devs of Color Expo, which will be held online on September 19, and organizer Shawn Alexander Allen, after being criticized for the company's failure to make a statement about Black Lives Matter, called it " calling it "a decent first step.

Allen, developer of the side-scrolling beat-up game "Treachery in Beatdown City," said on Twitter that Valve will be a "big sponsor" of the expo. According to Allen, Valve is also sponsoring the Black Voices in Gaming event organized by Justin Woodward, director of development studio Interabang and organizer of the recent Guerrilla Collective Digital Games Festival. He will be supporting the event.

Allen's statement was in response to a tweet from ART SQOOL developer Julian Glander, who, along with several other developers, announced that Valve would remove the game from Steam because it had not issued a statement regarding the Black Lives Matter protests He announced.

Following the May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, several game developers and publishers, including Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Don't Starve developer Klei, pledged donations and statements of solidarity. posted on social media channels.

Shortly after Glander called for solidarity from other developers, Gabriel Koenig, founder of Ghost Time Games, also tweeted a request to have his game removed from the platform. 'Without our games, Steam is nothing. We have the power to demand change. Developers, please consider speaking up, Steam will no longer get any money from me. He added that it would be unpleasant to see Steam's sales decrease by about $1,000 a month in the future, but otherwise he would be "complicit in the silence against hate."

Indie developer Dan Sanderson, who distributes the retro horror game "First Winter" on Steam, tweeted that it was "the least [he] could do" and "a principle."

Valve has yet to issue an official statement, but a spokesperson confirmed to Gamesindustry.biz that Allen's tweet was accurate.