The "Steam" of P*rn Games You’ve (Probably) Never Heard of
And how did they soar to the top so quickly?
This ordinary building in the heart of Montreal is home to a virtually unknown game studio that - seemingly out of nowhere - became the world’s top publisher of adult games. From a struggling game studio, they outgrew Steam in player numbers shockingly fast - too fast.
Ironically, their games pop up on Steam, famous YouTubers promote them, and yet, no one knows who they really are. Officially, they go by Nutaku, and nicknamed the “steamy” Steam, they promise to revolutionize the games industry
“one hand at a time.” -.-
Their rapid rise was suspicious. Denied interviews led me to dig deeper, unravel their three-part success strategy and who’s really pulling the strings behind these closed doors. *Grabs magnifying glass and pretends to be Sherlock*
Exploring the world of Nutaku wasn’t just an eye-opener - it was an eye-popper! The things I saw, I wish I could unsee them. BUT, hey, I learned a ton about their strategies that you wanna stick around for. Because before their rapid growth, they too were just another dirt-poor game studio in an industry where less than 1% of games find success. As Super Hippo Studios, they released a couple of titles which didn’t really click with players. One of their towerdefense games managed to be on the app store’s front page, but it lost against Plants vs Zombies 2, which launched just the same week. It’s tough for any new game studio to stand out these days, and many give up. They too were ready to throw in the towel.
But then, out of the blue, they decided to shift to an industry that’s not any less challenging, but surely less crowded: adult games. Lucrative, untapped potential, and in dire need of quality gameplay.
And so Super Hippo Studios rebranded as Nutaku to capitalize on this untapped market. A no-brainer, as we all know sex sells. In fact, adult games have been around since the 70’s, with the likes of Leisure Suit Larry and Softporn Adventures on DOS.
But then Nintendo in the 90’s made gaming all about kids. Pff, how could they. Sex and violence in games sparked overreactions and so the ratings board was introduced, with the kiss of death label: Adults Only. Any game with this label just sells less copies. And just like that, Western adult games went quiet. Now, games sneak in erotics tiptoeing around that label: Alien romance options, CJ in a secret mini-game, skippable scenes in the Witcher, and Cyberpunk? No idea how they managed to dodge the Adults Only label for a mere 17+ rating.
Nutaku, however, has a leg up. No tiptoeing required. With over 500 games, both F2P and paid, they even attracted a fast-growing female audience that proudly braggs about their, uh, ‘pet interruptions.’!
That’s not your everyday gaming stat, is it. But they are so profitable now, they even help struggling game devs who didn’t make it in the traditional games market. They take their games that didn’t make it on Steam and adultify them. That’s a huge part of their core business. Crush Crush for instance, developed by Sad Panda, didn’t really take off on Steam. So Nutaku funded some, let’ say, ‘enhancements’ and the game is now a hit on Nutaku. Their company motto clearly states that they don’t gamify porn, but adultify great games. A trend that’s been taking off on Steam too, judging by these charts.
It seems that Nutaku’s company mission is working: Democratize adult games one hand at a time.
But that’s not easy when theres a big stigma around adult games: They are considered cheap, low-quality porn with bad to no gameplay. Even Mr. Nintendo chimed in with a pointed critique about their bad game design.
And once, Fall Guys ran a campaign, inviting brands to create costumes through bidding. Nutaku offered $100k for their design. But Fall Guys’ response? ‘You are YEETED. NSFW.’
So breaking this stigma is tough. Even if there is huge demand for it: Among the top searches on Pornhub, game characters rule: FT, Overwatch, Minecraft…Chun Li, Tifa, Sonic…in any case, you see, there is a gap between public perception and private consumption, a gap that Nutaku wanted to bridge. But how, if all you’ve got is a drive to survive?
Strategy Stage: Survival
In order to survive, you've got to figure out what your audience wants but isn't getting. For Nutaku, that was the anime fans—big lovers of Japanese culture and gaming, but overlooked in the West. And what’s the common denominator of anime, porn and Japan? Hentai. Visual novels with explicit content. A style of Japanese erotic art, that’s centuries old and usually featured octopus tentacles to work around censorship. And still today, hentai is the most searched for term on, u know, hubs.
A clear gold mine for Nutaku. But rather than starting from scratch, they just turned to the east and teamed up with a big Japanese game developer to localize their games for the Western market. Smart move. Take existing games. Localize them. Sell it in the West. You’d think that’s it, cash cow found. But with that, they faced a huge challenge: Hentai’s bad reputation in the West: Underage themes, misogyny, acts of violence and many other things.
So Nutaku said: Let’s put gameplay first, and erotics second and offer all sorts of genres for all sorts of orientations. And that’s why their website has everything to offer from visual novels, puzzle and card games to strategy, RPG and even FPS. Games with rich storytelling.
As you progress, you unlock more and more ‘skin’ - OR u can also jump right into the fun part and check out gay, trans, or whatever that is - dinosaurs. No one’s left behind on Nutaku.net.
A smart strategic move. Good gameplay & inclusivity. Such good gaemplay they even managed to turn PewDiePie into a very special CEO.
In any case, just like that, they doubled their female audience and drew in 1M players in their first year alone. Survival phase, nailed.
But something was off: In just a year, they secured million-dollar investements and appear in top publications. That’s only possible if you have a strong PR team and deep pockets. Otherwise, for Nutaku, this next strategic stage wouldn’t have been as wild as it got.
Strategy Stage: Growth
So what’s the first thing you do when you’ve got cash, good PR and wanna grow? Exactly: Launch viral campaigns. And what better place to start than in men’s and women’s bathrooms? Yep, that’s what happened. Sponsor ads at an industry event to recruit game devs. One for the women, and one for the men. That’s some pretty agressive on-site marketing I’d say for a studio that just got started.
The marketing continued with a New York art exhibition titled ‘Hentai Is Art’ - all to build the brand and get Western consumers a bit more comfortable with the, eh, concept.
To get them even more comfortable, Nutaku came up with yet another expensive but clever campaign: “Now I Nutaku.”
I don’t Nutaku, but I am sure these ladies do. Both Pornhub embassadors. And Nutaku managed to feature them in their games. One in ‘Fap CEO’ and the other in ‘Booty Calls.’
And if that’s not enough, why not try Nutaku’s Hentai Hot Sauce, an aphrodisiac for gamers to get them all fired up. And boy, did the community get all fired up.
But if that’s not enough, why not launch a Nutaku-themed adult chair. With all the bells and whistles so you can get the full experience out of their games. Ok, that was just a marketing gimmick by Nutaku, but their actual gamer chair did sell out in less than 48h.
Just like their boob-shaped console. It’s windows-based, silicone covered and comes pre-loaded with 200 F2P premium game titles.
But if that’s not enough: Why not enter a prize pool of 10k for the best video that shows people playing Nutaku games while actually playing with themselves. That’s Nutaku’s prime example of a marketing campaign.
But, it doesn’t stop there. Marketing has no limits, and so why not launch Nutaku’s First-Ever Lewd Gaming Championship with a prize pool 25 grant. Again. All this costs! And there’s no public info on who’s funding Nutaku. But I got you covered. Stick around. Because it does get stickier. Especially on DISCORD. That’s the glue that holds their entire marketing strategy together. I mean Discord for game companies is standard, but their channel? It’s not just active, it’s on another level of active. In any case, with good gameplay, developers by your side, a crazy marketing strategy, expensive ad campaigns and an active Discord community, you’ve not only grown, but generated a powerhouse of Western hentai gaming. Growth Stage, nailed.
Strategy Stage: Thrive
Now, Nutaku is rakin in cash, featured in major publications, and their investment funds grow every year. What’s missing? Cutting-edge tech, that's what. In 2018, Nutaku added cryptocurrency as a payment option as there was growing demand for privacy in digital transactions, particularly in the porn industry. But for a growing company, implementing this payment infrastructure this quickly suggests some powerful help behind the scenes. I mean, Nutaku seemed to have a knack for marketing, PR and monetziation right from the start. So the question remains: who’s really powering Nutaku’s meteoric rise? The truth is, there's a much darker force behind the scenes pulling the strings.
And so, let me tell you, that behind these closed doors isn’t just Nutaku steering the ship, but the biggest titan of the porn industry: Mindgeek. The shadowy corporation that owns pretty much every major adult site out there, including Pornhub, Brazzers, Youporn and yes, Nutaku too. You might have heard of Mindgeek before, but not in a good way. The Netflix documentary "Money Shot" uncovered Mindgeek’s complicity in allowing all sorts of illegal content, from rape videos to child pornography and sex trafficking. It was a massive scandal that even led to angry mobs burning down the $19M mansion of Pornhub's CEO Feras Antoon. After this, he stepped down as Pornhub’s CEO but didn’t disappear into the dark, no. Instead, he became CEO of Mindgeek. And guess what? This CEO has a brother, who is none other but the president of Nutaku himself. Mark Antoon. Yep, it's a real family affair over there at MindGeek.
So while Nutaku was busy marketing itself as this fun, innocent gaming site, behind the scenes it was all part of MindGeek's desperate attempt to rebrand and diversify in the wake of their public shaming. All those aggressive marketing campaigns, top-tier PR, cutting-edge payment options, and millions in investment funds are Mindgeek’s influence at work. Their in-house ad company, Traffic Junky, which is, btw, in the same building, helped Nutaku to blast their ads all over the internet and reach millions of players. Nutaku's Cindarella success story was no fluke; it was orchestrated. A strategic move to polish Mindgeeks image. A classic case of corporate rebranding.
But that’s only half the story. It gets darker: Mindgeek loves data. Everytime Mindgeek hires a new person, they tell them that they’ll take ‘big data to the next level.’ Data is, after all, far better than cash in the bank for any digital company. And what better way to collect that data than through a gaming platform like Nutaku? Their games are designed to collect user behavior. Any puzzle, clicker or strategy game has an in-build decision-making gameplay that tells them more about you than you know about yourself. What’s shocking to me was that Nutaku’s privacy policy outright reserves the right to collect information on pretty much everything you do on their site. From customization of content to advertising and analytics, Nutaku can send your data to anyone without restrictions. After all, MindGeek is a web development company. Porn is merely a strategy for collecting user data. And so, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Mindgeek is actually rebranding itself now to Aylo. A rebrand that ‘comes in response to the need for a fresh start.’
And so, Nutaku may be the Cindarella success story in adult gaming, but MindGeek is pulling the strings behind the scenes. That's often how it goes in the world of business. The most impressive success stories are rarely as simple as they seem on the surface. Interestingly enough, on their Linkedin page, Nutaku never explicitly reveals what they do or provide. I guess it's not exactly something you wanna broadcast to the professional world, do you.
And maybe that's the real lesson here. In the dog-eat-dog world of digital business, sometimes it's not just about having the best product or the flashiest marketing. Sometimes, it's about who you know. Happy Ending.