Valve has recently confirmed that it removed some adult games fromSteamto appease payment processors. Some gamers were already speculating that this was the reason behind the recent change inSteam’s content guidelines, and the statement clarified that payment companies contacted the popular PC gaming platform and asked for the removal of certain titles.
Steam recently changed its content guidelines, stating that games that violated the standards set by the platform’s payment processors, banks, and networks would be removed. Soon after the change, the platform was criticized by gamers due to the worryingly vague new guidelines, as the platform suggested that developers should avoid publishing “certain kinds of adult-only content,” but didn’t provide specifics.
Now, in an official response to media outlets such asEurogamer, Steam explained that it changed its rules because the company was recently notified that certain games violated the “rules and standards set forth by our payment processors and their related card networks and banks.” According to Steam, the loss of these payment methods would prevent customers from purchasing other titles, so the decision was made to remove these adult games from the platform.Information from SteamDBindicates that over 100 games have been removed from the platform recently, with many of them being “incest-themed.” Most of these titles areadult-only Steam gamesand are likely victims of this change in moderation. At the time, SteamDB’s profile hinted that the removal could be linked to PayPal, as people from certain regions were no longer able to use the payment method to purchase games on the platform for around five days, but this was never confirmed.
Valve Removed Some Adult Games From Steam Due to Payment Processors
At the moment, it’s still unclear how this will affectother Steam games focused on dating, for example, if they include any adult content. While many titles have been removed from the store, Steam has a huge number of titles focused on adult content, and most of them were not affected. While some of them could be affected in the future, it’s likely that many will not. It’s also unclear if these guidelines set by payment processors will only affect games in some “niches,” such as the “incest-themed” titles that were spotted by SteamDB.
In any case, not manygames receive adult-only ratingson Steam, so it’s safe to assume that most releases will be free from the changes in the guidelines. However, multiple gamers have expressed concern on social media over these changes, as they may empower payment processors to censor content that they would deem controversial in any way.
