A CONTROVERSIAL video game pitched as a “school shooting simulation” has been ditched ahead of its release.

Active Shooter has been dropped by digital distribution platform Steam after criticism by parents of real-life school shooting victims.

An online petition opposing its launch had attracted more than 180,000 signatures.

Steam’s owner, Valve, said it had ditched the game because its developer had a history of bad behaviour, the BBC reports.

But the individual named has denied involvement.

Earlier this week, the families of two students killed in February’s high school attack in Parkland, Florida had described the game as being “despicable” and “horrific”.

It was slammed by Florida’s senior senator Bill Nelson, who called it “inexcusable”, adding that the developer should be “ashamed”.

A trailer of gameplay on the page shows a player running past dead bodies in the school halls and shooting at the SWAT team from a classroom window, with real-time stats tallying the amount of civilians and cops they have murdered.

The game had claimed to feature a “variety of real life weapons” and “real life situations”.