History of porn games - The Booming 00s

History of Porn games – The 00s Adult Games

This is the 3rd and final part of our journey through the history of porn games. If you missed the first two parts you can check them out here:

- Adult games in the wild 80s (how it all began)

- Adult games in the funky 90s

The 00s really was the booming golden era when it came to adult games, Everybody was trying to come up with it and get a piece of this new emerging market. Big games in adult industry started making games, like Playboy and Vivid entertainment, in the east big companies in Japan started to emerge that were only producing porn games and they spared no expanse when it come to them. A lot of money was thrown into the sector. So what happened. Let's dive into the era which I'm sure many of you have personal experience with,

AAA Studios making adult games

The period from 2000 to 2010 was a time of significant growth for adult games, as the internet made it easier to distribute and access adult content. A lot classical titles were produced and even some of the AAA developers tried to include some more mature themes into their games for instance Sims launched it's 3rd expansion pack in 2001 called Hot Date which added more romance and even implied some sexy times.

The German studio called Rotobee even launched the Sims for "grown-ups" called

Singles: Flirt up your Life. Game was released in 2003 and really was a sims clone with more spicy stuff in it. Though the "sims" gameplay part was not that great the game still did well in terms of sales and even offered a sequel to it called Singles 2: Triple Trouble which included some 3 way action as well. To get the uncensored version of the game you had to buy it directly from the developer as the CD-ROM version was censored.

The GTA Incident - Hot Coffee

The big move towards the naughty area was done in 2004 when Rockstar with it's "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" which caused controversy when it was discovered that a hidden minigame (called Hot Coffee) allowed players to engage in explicit sexual activity with a partner. This was not "officially" included in the game but well the code was there and the modding community found it pretty quick. Rockstar had a ton of problems as lawsuits were filled against the company, they also received warnings from the Federal Trade Commissions. Oh yeah and Australia just banned the game till all the codes showing steamy sex was removed.

The incident had a major impact on the gaming industry and new fines were introduced (up to $1 million) for game developers who would fail to disclose everything that the game entails. And yet in the recent release of the GTA definitive version which also includes San Andreas, hot coffee was found yet again in the code. Mistake or?

Famous Adult companies make sexy games

Moving on to the games were sexy stuff was no accident but the core of it all.

As I mentioned in the intro of the article the big adult companies tried their luck in the gaming industry and games like Virtually Jenna (play with your favorite porn star wink wink) were published, along with a bunch of Strip poker games that featured your favorite adult star.

Even the famous girls gone wild tried it's luck with an awful game called "The guy Game" which was a trivia style game where if you answer all the questions correctly the girls flash their boobs. All that the game with bunch of girls in their bikinis was able to achieve was to get in a lawsuit. Apparently one of the girls was 17 at the time of the production. What a mess.

But the game that made the biggest impact was Playboy: The Mansion

Playboy made an adult game and even succeed to get it into mainstream media. Game was released in 2005 for PC, PS2 and even Xbox. You are play Hugh Hefner the founder of Playboy and guide him from the humble beginnings to the major adult empire playboy is today. Game was actually quite fun and it entailed from building up the mansion hiring playboy bunnies and having sessions with the playmates. Yes there is a ton of partying in the game and you can even take the lovely lady to explore to famous pool Grotto. But still Playboy: The Mansion was a simulation game first and an adult game second. After all the main mission of the game was to publish the Playboy magazine every month and the sex was kinda censored.

Playboy: The Mansion had a DLC called Midsummer Night's Dream which also added a function to remove the underwear when having sex. Mhm kinky.

Sinners

There was another game that made a lot of buzz in the mainstream media when it was first published, an adult game called 7 Sins from a developer Monte Cristo, a studio known for their simulation games like Cities XL and Airline Tycoon. 7 Sins was also a simulation game filled with bunch of mini games and the main goal was to reach the top of the social ladder while making the decisions related to the 7 deadly sins. Yes there are 7 chapters in the game and a ton of NPCs to interact with while progressing through the game but the mini games were tedious. Game actually had a pretty decent reception but it was forgotten as quickly as it was published. It was also the only adult themed game to be produced by the french developer.

Of course the 00s didn't go by without the major classics which dominated the 90s. The famous Leisure Suit Larry was back with two games the Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude which placed Larry Lovage (nephew of the original Larry Laffer) in the university, some sexy content but awful gameplay and the sequel Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust which actually had no sexual and nudity content at all. The tedious mini games, wonky play controls and overall bad graphics made both games the worst in all of the series. It was actually the 2013 when the essence of the original Larry came back with the 2nd remake of the First Larry game called Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded

Another 90s classic which had it's comeback in 00s was Lula series with the Lula 3D. Game really did not age well and to be honest it was bad at the time it was released. They should have stick with the original 90s concept of the simulation games instead of trying to make an adventure style game with awful graphics and even worse humor.

Talking about bad humor there was a game in the 00s called Ibiza Babewatch (released 2001 by CDV Software) which was a voyeur style game where you had to take photos of naked women and sell them on the internet. And the hottest the action the better the payout. It had a mix of 2d style with real movies. A controversial game was very popular in Russia though.

The birth of adult MMO

2005 was just a wild year for adult gaming and it was also the year that the first adult MMO called Red Light Center came to life. An online virtual world created by Utherverse was modeled by the famous Amsterdam Red Light District and it offered nightclubs, bars, stores, theaters etc where players could meet, chat and have spicy fun. The BDSM community especially favored the game and a lot of content was added to serve it. Virtual sex was thus born and it never looked backed. Red Light Center is actually still available to play even after all this years.

Another popular series of adult games in the West during this period was the "SexVilla" series, which was developed by ThriXXX. These games were 3D simulations that allowed players to create and customize characters, and engage in a variety of sexual activities. The first game in the series, "3D SexVilla," was released in 2001, and it was followed by several sequels. The 3D SexVilla 2 is popular even this day and age and boast a massive modding community

Bonetown

And then came the year 2008 and one of the best adult classics was released. Bonetown.

Bonetown is an important adult game as it made a major buzz in the media and it brought the adult themed gaming to a lot of front pages. Even though the media and the critics were laughing at the game for its bad execution, poor gameplay, bad humor and gave Bonetown mostly negative reviews it still managed to make its mark and sell a lot of copies.

What Bonetwond had was sex and sex was for the first time in the west really positioned front end center of it all. It was not a simulation game or an adventure game with some sexy elements it was about boning every chick in town. Twice.

And while they laughed back then the current reviews for Bonetown on Steam stand at Very Positive. Game is fun but you need both hands to play it.

If you want to learn more about Bonetown I invite you to read our special on it.

Japanese Games of the 00s

The Japanese adult game industry has a long history, dating back to the 1980s. During the early 2000s, there was a significant increase in the number of adult games being produced in Japan. These games were typically either visual novels or simulation games, often featuring explicit sexual content.

A lot of new companies started to emerge some of them only producing explicit games. One of such is a now well-know company called Illusion which was founded in 2001. Their games were not allowed to be sold outside Japan due to the controversial nature of most of the games. It was actually not until 2016 that Illusion also officially sold it's first game called Honey Select outside of Japan.

They produced a ton of eroge games in the 00s with some most notable being Battle Raper, a sexy 3D fighter game where after you win the fight you get the price in flesh as well. Girls lose their clothes during the combat and you can use special sexual attack to deal damage to the opponent. As this was the era of famous Soulcalibur series it was no surprise the game sold well and it was a popular NSFW addition to the genre.

Another popular series from Illusion during this period was the "Sexy Beach" series. These games were 3D simulations that allowed players to create and customize characters, and engage in a variety of sexual activities. The first game in the series, "Sexy Beach," was released in 2002, and it was followed by several sequels. We have since seen a ton of similar games by Illusion where the true star of the game is the character creator it is no wonder that one of the latest games called Honey Select 2 is used as a base for many of the modern games even some of the famous ones like Eternum

In 2006, a controversial game called "Rapelay" was released, which allowed players to simulate sexual assault. The game introduced a new 3D engine which was later used in new Sexy Beach games. The game was widely criticized and eventually banned in several countries including Japan itself.

Rapelay was also used in British Parliament, when one of the MPs found Rapelay being sold on Amazon and was quickly used as an example of what games are being played by young people and why video gaming needs to be more strictly regulated.

The direct aftermath of the game brought several Eroge publishers and studios to begin banning foreign IPs and restricting access to their websites.

The "Chikan" genre (sexual harassment, usually on a train) was very popular in that time and several other titles emerged from Japan most of them getting an unofficial modded English translation soon after.

As per previous decades the true king in Japan were and still are the adult visual novel games and the 00s era saw a lot of great classics come to life some of them even being translated into English. Some of the most noteworthy are:

Do You Like Horny Bunnies? a bishojo game released in 2001 (2003 US) was fully voiced and in the English market even uncensored. It had several endings and an amazing art that is still viable. There was also a sequel to the game cleverly named Do You Like Horny Bunnies? 2

Another VNA worth mentioning was Kango Shicyauzo also know in the US as I'm Gonna Nurse You which was released in 2003. Again the game was fully voiced which became a standard in Japan and something that is still missing in a lot of western adult games even today. Kango Shicyauzo was selling extremely well outside of Japan and it opened the door to a lot more of similar games to be translated into English.

There were some controversial visual novel games which did make it to the US market. One of such titles was Virgin Roster, a game by ZyX in 2003, where you play a more sinister character (a school teacher with a black soul) that is after only one thing... the young innocent girls. In comparison to Rapelay the game was never banned but somehow managed to fly under the radar.

In 2001 there was one important RPG game that came out and opened the door to many more that followed soon after. Brave Soul. This Massive RPG is still consider a classic and it was the first action role-playing game ported to English. While it is an adult game it is an RPG first and with it comes a complex story, combat mechanics, quests etc.

If you want a stab at one of the Japanese classics go for this one.

The history is made today

As the first decade of 2000 was coming to an end the so did the hype for adult games in the West. Even though there were some games released in the next 10 years like the BoneTown sequel called Bonecraft most of the games were erotic browser based games (sadly majority of them really bad), so most of the sexy stuff we saw we in the Sexy MMOs that were again mainly produced in the east.

Japan though never saw a decline and moved forward with force producing many new titles over the years some of the with a AAA budget. A lot of dedicated communities appeared in the west that translated these japanese games and gave us something to play while we waited for the return of the adult game.

It was not until about 5 years ago that the west entered it's renaissance era with 100s of adult games starting to pop up and then slowly being accepted on major platforms such as Steam and Patreon to be bought and supported.

Even though I titled the 00s the golden era of the history the true golden era has just began.

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Did I miss an important adult game of the 00s? Let me know in the comments.

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