Visible novel horror Doki Doki Literature Membership has been pulled from Google Play Retailer for violating the Phrases of Service and its “depiction of delicate themes”.
Doki Doki Literature Membership – the unsettling however good psychological horror that originally debuted as freeware earlier than becoming a member of Steam as a free recreation virtually a decade in the past – was lastly ported to iOS and Android in December 2025. However whereas the vastly common cult recreation continues to be obtainable totally free on Apple gadgets, Google has pulled the horror title from its retailer.
Regardless of its interesting visible novel aesthetic, DDLC is clearly labelled as a psychological horror recreation, with an added disclosure within the recreation’s description explaining “this recreation isn’t appropriate for youngsters or those that are simply disturbed”. The disclosure can also be harassed in the beginning of trailers, such because the teaser embedded on the sport’s Steam web page. Nonetheless, the sport was pulled from the shop earlier this week.
“Yesterday, Google selected to take away Doki Doki Literature Membership from the Google Play Retailer. Their clarification is that the sport’s content material violates their Phrases of Service in its depiction of delicate themes,” developer San Salvato and writer Serenity Forge Staff mentioned in a joint assertion.
“DDLC is broadly celebrated for portraying psychological well being in a approach that meaningfully connects deeply with gamers all over the world, serving to them really feel heard, understood, and fewer alone on their journey. Managing to attain that – making a really significant distinction through the use of the ability of fiction to connect with others – is what I’m most grateful for. It evokes me daily to maintain making cool new issues, issues that may actually attain others, particularly these in want of connection.”
A press release relating to the elimination of DDLC from the Google Play Retailer:
[image or embed]
— Serenity Forge (@serenityforge.com) April 9, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Salvato mentioned that the crew was “persevering with to do the whole lot we will to discover a path ahead for getting DDLC reinstated on the Google Play Retailer”, in addition to discover “potential choices for alternate strategies of distribution on Android gadgets” however on the time of writing, there was no additional updates from the writer.
“We labored onerous to convey DDLC to Android, and we’ve gotten to see a lot love and enthusiasm from passionate Android customers over these previous few months,” the assertion concluded. “Thanks a lot to the neighborhood for persevering with to specific your love and help for DDLC by way of the years. We’ll hold you up to date on the way forward for DDLC for Android.”
Doki Doki Literature Membership – thought to have reached over 30 million gamers worldwide – stays freely obtainable on different gadgets, together with Nintendo Swap, PC, and PlayStation.
Leave a Reply