Valve has announced that the Steam Summer Game Festival has been delayed from June 9th to June 16th. The festival, which was originally set to run through the 14th, will now run through the 22nd. 

This news came to Gamasutra by way of an e-mail from Valve, which contained exactly one line. "The Steam Game Festival has been rescheduled for Tuesday, June 16th thru June 22nd." That's it, that's the e-mail. 

The delay of the Summer Game Festival itself isn't surprising. Every other event that was set to replace the usual E3 preview ensemble has announced its postponement, most of them crediting the current Black Lives Matter protests, and a need to prioritize justice over video game hype. 

However, Valve has not given such a reason. Nor has Valve made any statement about the Black Lives Matter protests. The latter fact would normally not be cause for such extreme concern if so many other developers had not already spoken out and made donations to organizations working to advance racial justice. 

Valve also has faced criticism for the propogation of hate groups and a lax approach to moderating racial slurs on Steam. Team Fortress 2 players have apparently been facing a flood of racist in-game bots in the last two months as well. 

It's a little unusual to see Valve's tight-lippedness suddenly be applied to a cause that has found support among game developers big and small. 

GI.Biz's Rebekah Valentine has spoken to some developers included in the Festival, who've said they're in favor of the delay but only found out in the same window that the press did. 

Gamasutra has reached out to Valve for further comment. We will update this story when it responds.