Doki Doki Literature Club is one of those games considered genre-defining, as it almost singlehandedly spearheaded and revolutionized the "new weird" movement in video games, where titles would behave seemingly on their own, providing some of the most unique horror ever displayed on screen.It came out in 2017 and at the time was surrounded by a lot of controversy and discussions, primarily due to its dark, graphic, and unfiltered themes that concerned suicide, self-harm, mental illness, and so on. It was and remains a direct confrontation with the darkest sides of humanity and is, on top of that, one of the most unique games ever made, since its gameplay loop largely depends on constant replays where the game "autonomously" does things to itself and to your machine. Nine years later, Doki Doki Literature Club is again in the limelight, once more due to its themes and graphic displays, which Google Play seems to have taken an issue with. A few months after launching on Android, DDLC has been deplatformed by the biggest app store on that platform, which creator Dan Salvato and DDLC publisher Serenity Forge say was prompted by the game's "depiction of sensitive themes." DDLC was one of the most influential horror games of the 2010s. Image via Team SalvatoAs per a joint statement, Doki Doki Literature Club was removed from Google Play for violating the platform's terms of service with its depictions of mental illness, suicide, self-harm, and other "sensitive" topics. Its creator and publisher say that DDLC is "widely celebrated" for its meaningful depictions of these darker themes and imply that only Google seems to have taken an issue with the title, considering that it's available on every other major platform. They're also looking into having the game reinstated, as it took many years for DDLC to be ported from PC to everywhere else, including Android. It almost goes without saying that Doki Doki Literature Club is a violent game, at least insofar as a game's subject matter can be used to describe it as a whole. There are many things in there that could be considered graphic, disturbing, and outright horrifying, but I never felt that that could be grounds for removal. Art needs to be a free venue of expression, no matter what it tries to depict, especially if the depictions themselves are meaningful and even helpful.Platforms banning games for how they approach topics should not be news, ever, but as was the case with Horses, it seems we're now living in a time where stepping out of bounds of what is acceptable and "comfortable" could lead to total censorship, even if it comes a decade after the fact. Grim times, indeed.Anyhow, I've reached out to Doki Doki creator Dan Salvato, but didn't hear back by the time of publishing this article, which I will update if I come by additional information that could explain this strange move by Google.The post Never too late for censorship: Doki Doki Literature Club gets deplatformed by Google Play a decade after release appeared first on Destructoid.