On July 16,Steamupdated its game publisher rules to include a clause that prohibits content in violation of any standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors, banks, or network providers. Following the rule change,Steamhas removed some adult-oriented games from its storefront that violate the updated guidelines.
The update came at a busy time for the PC’s top storefront. Earlier in July, someSteam users reported that they were able to hide mature content warningsthat appear when browsing the platform. This move allows users to bypass a pop-up that periodically appears and asks for a birthdate in order to see games that contain violence, sexual content, or other tags that would warrant a mature rating. While the methods for hiding mature content warnings on Steam are unclear, it remains to be seen if Valve will make this a global feature or if it will be specific to certain countries or territories as a user option.
WhileSteam still contains a repository of adult-only games, the storefront is starting to crack down on specific content that game developers are allowed to publish.As reported by GameSpark(andtranslated by Automaton), Valve has updated the Steamworks Onboarding rules and guidelines about the content that can be distributed on the storefront. While rules that prohibit games containing hate speech, defamatory statements, or similarly egregious content from being published on Steam have long been in place, a 15th rule was added that targets specific adult-only content.Per the updated Steam rules, this change applies to “content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers.” However, it is not clear how narrowly or broadly this rule will apply to mature-rated games.
Steam’s Updated Rules Target Specific Adult-Only Content
According toSteamDB’s event history page, Steam has already started removing various games with explicit sexual content and similar labels from the platform following the rule’s implementation. This move is in line with a similarstance recently taken by Nintendo to curate its eShop. The Nintendo Switch 2 developer and publisher portal was updated on June 5 to prohibit spam content and products that are “damaging to the Nintendo brand” from being published on each regional eShop storefront on a case-by-case basis.
Althoughgames that earn the notorious Adults Only (AO) ratinghave largely been banned or made difficult to obtain, some have found a home on Steam and similar storefronts. Only time will tell how many games will be affected by Steam’s new guidelines.
