[Update] Divergence Online Has Been Removed From Steam
Update: A more official post has been made to the Divergence Facebook Group stating that, because of the situation mentioned below and Valve's response to it, the team themselves have opted to remove the game from sale via Steam until they receive "a more favorable response from Valve other than the typical auto-response email." The game does remain playable for those who bought it, as with other games removed from Steam, and updates are ongoing. The original article is as follows.
Divergence Online has had a rough time on Steam with consistent accusations of having stolen assets from its primary source of inspiration, Star Wars Galaxies being slung at it. As of today, Valve have removed the game from sale on Steam, leaving its previous store page redirecting to the homepage. In fact, if the tweets are to be believed, Valve took it down thanks to accusations of stolen assets—only the assets in question aren't allegedly from Star Wars Galaxies.
A short while ago, Ana Morgan—one of Divergence Online's two developers—explained via tweets embedded below that someone had offered to send the two-person team assets completely unsolicited. When they refused, the person in question allegedly ed Valve claiming that they had stolen their assets. Valve promptly removed the game from the Steam store.
From what it sounds like, the team has the proof to sort this out and have Divergence reinstated on Steam. However, it remains to be seen if this proof is enough for Valve to put the game back up for sale.
It seems anyone can email Valve and accuse developers of using their work without permission and! Here's the best part...
— Ana Morgan (@themasquerader) January 28, 2016
Valve takes down the game in question WITHOUT requiring ANY kind of proof from the person making the accusation.
— Ana Morgan (@themasquerader) January 29, 2016
What happened is that this person sent us unsolicited assets, we politely refused them because um we didn't need or want said assets.
— Ana Morgan (@themasquerader) January 29, 2016
We have an entire Skype log with all the details of the refusal. We even gave this person a free key cause they said they were too poor etc.
— Ana Morgan (@themasquerader) January 29, 2016