Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is about a distant planet ravaged by war as factions fight for control of a dangerous new energy source. Fans of the upcoming FromSoftware game are currently engaged in a war of their own on the mech fighter’s Steam page, trying to tag the game as sexy and cute. The developers aren’t having it.
Set to release sometime this year, FromSoftware has said Armored Core VI will remain faithful to the series’ level-based, customization-centric approach to robot combat. Boss battles will be one of the main attractions, but the developers have tried to discourage speculation that the studio’s recent success with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring will lead to the Dark Souls-ification of the beloved mech formula. They’ve apparently also been trying to discourage fans from suggesting erroneous tags on Steam.
Elden Ring dataminer sekirodubi recently noticed that the change log for the Armored Core VI Steam page includes a ton of updates to the user-defined tags. Players suggest “dating sim” and “sexual content,” and then other players or someone at publisher Bandai Namco tries to push back with different tags.
Immediately after its December 9 reveal at the 2022 Game Awards, Armored Core VI’s Steam page filled up with predictable tags like “action,” “futuristic,” and “third-person.” But before long, players were throwing “dating sim” into the mix. It was quickly removed to make room for “souls-like.” On December 10 “sexual content” was added, only to disappear later that same day as “souls-like” and “dating sim” returned.
In the weeks that followed, the user tags kept getting updated with things like “cute” and “relaxing,” later replaced by tags like “dark,” “story rich,” and “vehicular combat.” Most of the changelog on the third-party Steam Database site simply describes tags as switching places, most likely with more popular ones edging the others off the main page into the “see more” section.
Armored Core VI isn’t the only game to get pranked this way—players have tried to tag Star Wars Jedi: Survivor as hentai in the past—but it appears somewhat unique in just how much of a continuous and concerted effort fans have made. They’ve been closely watching the official tags that get added, hoping for any additional hints about what might be in the game. Unfortunately, it sounds like Armored Core will not be getting the Fire Emblem: Three Houses treatment this time around. Players will have to look elsewhere for the perfect mech romance game.