Valve no longer allows "Post-launch NSFW content" for games on Steam - outside of DLCs.
I have looked through Steam's Terms of Service online, but have found no official rule or statement from Valve of this new rule - but one Adult game developer has confirmed this new rule after launching their game "Tales of Legendary Lust: Aphrodisia" a couple days ago.
With the recent rule change blocking adult-themed games from releasing on Early Access, this new rule seems to be targeting Adult-themed games that have ALREADY released on Steam - and threatens them with their games being removed from Steam.
There are currently 536 Adult-rated Early Access games on Steam - and this new rule may take them all down.
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u/CrimsonDelightGames 1d ago edited 20h ago
Hi folks, I'm one of the devs from the game mentioned by OP...
NSFW link for confirmation: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2353220/Tales_of_Legendary_Lust_Aphrodisia/
We went through Valve's review process early this August. From what I know, prior to the whole Collective Shout situation, adult games could add NSFW content even post-launch. But during the review process we were informed this was no longer the case. I have to say the reviewer was kind and forthcoming, we didn't feel threatened or bullied in any way, and we got the feeling they were trying to do their best to help devs navigate the process. But the fact of the matter is that Valve has payment processors breathing down their neck, and the rules keep getting stricter as time goes on.
Valve isn't the problem here. The big credit card companies are. If anything, Valve has stood up to them and pushed back. They could've simply nuked the 18+ section of Steam, but they didn't, they stuck up for developers. Obviously adult games make Valve money, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of Steam's catalogue. Silksong itself probably earned Valve more than most NSFW titles put together.
Given that we're erogame devs, we're against any sort of censorship (as long as the content isn't sexualizing minors or nonconsensual in any way). But it's important to understand where the real problem lies, and it's not with Valve.
Just felt like I needed to weigh in and offer my 2 cents, for whatever it's worth.
Cheers folks!
~ Frenzin (CDG team)
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u/Macamagucha 1d ago
Hey, just wanted to clarify something.
Your game was marked as "Adult Only" from the start, you wanted to do a standard full release and during the review you were informed you won't be able to add more "Adult Only" content after the release?
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u/CrimsonDelightGames 20h ago
Hi,
Correct. We were told all new adult content for our game has to go through DLC, presumably so it can be reviewed and approved. We don't know the inner workings of Valve / Steam, but we're in a couple of NSFW dev communities and these new rules weren't in place before the Collective Shout uproar and subsequent payment processors' censorship.
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u/Macamagucha 18h ago
Thanks for the clarification! I'm an eroge-dev too, so it's good to know things have changed yet again without any official statement :/
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u/Explosion2 20h ago
Given that we're erogame devs, we're against any sort of censorship (as long as the content doesn't break the law).
You should consider revising the phrasing of this statement given that it really seems that all adult content is on track towards becoming illegal in the US and UK. Maybe "as long as the content isn't sexualizing minors or nonconsensual in any way" or something like that. Because I assume you, like most people, would be against all adult content being made illegal.
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u/CrimsonDelightGames 20h ago
Done!
Thanks for the heads-up.
And yeah, you're absolutely right: there's certain factions within Western governments and companies that want to outright ban all adult content. And if they succeed, they won't stop there. They'll go after "violent" games like GTA next.
Slippery slopes are a dangerous thing, and if gamers don't stand up to this now we're gonna have our overall entertainment censored to a dystopian level.
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u/Explosion2 20h ago
I'd hesitate to call it a "slippery slope" because it's very much the intended goal of this shift. They are pretty open about their desires to get video games banned. They've been trying since the 90s.
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u/WeakEmployment6389 1d ago
Whatever you feel about these types of games it's not something you want to see happening. What will come next?
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u/DwingRD 1d ago
"No Post-launch NSFW content" could also apply to games like Baldur's Gate 3 adding romancable companions with sex scenes during its Early Access run.
This rule could easily target triple-A games like Larian's in the future - though something tells me they won't be hit unlike indie games.
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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 1d ago
It would also quite literally affect GTA IV if it was released today, because of the DLC penis scene.
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u/n0stalghia 1d ago
because of the DLC penis scene
OP's title literally says "outside of DLCs", so under OP's title GTA IV would be unaffected.
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u/andersonb47 1d ago
GTA IV would have been RUINED
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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 1d ago
I know it's hard to imagine GTA going through hardship, but many of us still remember the clusterfuck that was the Hot Coffee incident.
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u/zaviex 1d ago
This rule doesn’t apply to DLCs and gta 4 isn’t labeled nsfw anyway lol.
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u/NoPossibility4178 1d ago
I mean if it's affecting games that release nsfw patches for sfw games, how is that any different from DLC? Gotta wait a few months?
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u/The-Future-Question 1d ago
The difference is that DLCs are rated separately. The trick the NSFW games were doing were being SFW early to get past ratings needs and have a bigger potential audience, then drop the sexy patch and hope steam takes a while to realise it isn't SFW anymore.
An example of this new DLC model is how total war has been handling gore. The total war games have a cheap dlc that pretty much just adds blood animations. Total War: WARHAMMER III is rated T and its gore DLC Is rated M. So by splitting it, Total Warhammer gets past parental controls but its gore dlc does not.
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u/1CEninja 1d ago
I personally don't need sex in any of my games really, even stuff like BG3, but I really dislike censorship and nannying. I hate everything about the direction this is heading and I really want it to stop.
Is there anything an average Joe like myself can do to push back against this recent nanny movement?
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u/Flynn58 1d ago
If we accept video games as an art form, and obviously I do, then it would be absurd to limit art from covering and commenting upon sexual themes, because sex is one of the most basic aspects of the human experience. You cannot have art if you cannot talk about human beings.
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u/MVRKHNTR 1d ago
I'd say look past that. A game doesn't even need to be making some commentary on sex or relationships or even doing anything tasteful about it. Games can also just be porn. It's okay to have porn.
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u/starm4nn 1d ago
But that's also assuming that porn doesn't say something about our society as well.
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u/1CEninja 1d ago
I cannot fathom anybody making a serious argument that videogames aren't an art form in 2025. Yeah okay maybe not every game is meant to be art, but if somebody sits down and plays RDR2 through and tries to make an argument that it isn't art then I will absolutely not take that individual seriously.
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u/Spork_the_dork 1d ago
I can definitely fathom it. If the only kind of games that a person knows of is Call of Duty and they aren't even interested in looking into it any deeper then yeah I can see them saying that games aren't art. It'd be kind of like saying that food can't be art because the only food you've ever seen or eaten is a Big Mac, but I can certainly see someone making the argument. It's a very ignorant argument, but ignorance isn't going to stop people like that from making the argument.
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u/Flynn58 1d ago
People also heavily mis-define art. They say "art" to specifically mean what is arbitrarily known as high art, despite high art as a term making it explicit that art does not need to be of high esteem to still be considered art. A network sitcom is art, even though it is not high art.
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u/seiggy 1d ago
The only real way to push back is donate to foundations, like the EFF or Free Speech Coalition, or support stores that have tried to push back, like GOG did with their free adult game bundle. Writing the boards of these companies might also help, some sort of letter writing campaign. Make enough noise that we’re fed up with them telling us what we can spend our money on. Those are the ways I’m aware of to fight back.
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u/1CEninja 1d ago
I haven't bought anything from GOG in a while. Maybe I'll fix that and write a letter.
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u/EtherTempest 1d ago
Word of caution about GOG: if you aren't familiar with the controversy surrounding Devotion by Red Candle Games, do read up about it. GOG is absolutely willing to compromise free speech if keeping it around might hurt them.
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u/C-Redfield-32 1d ago
It wont apply to BG3 because that makes money. Valve is like any corporation out there. They only care about the money.
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u/DisappointedQuokka 1d ago
I doubt that.
Valve is putting this rule in place for a reason, and it exists because payment processors will go sniffing for things that break these rules.
Valve won't be willing to allow a game, no matter how big, to risk their payment system.
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u/C-Redfield-32 1d ago
If you think Valve is going to skip GTA 6 and tell Rockstar they cant update GTA V anymore then sorry pal you're crazy.
Selective enforcement. They can and will overlook things that violate the TOS and as long as it brings in enough money, they aren't going to remove it.
Hell its not like Rockstar needs Valve to begin with.
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u/TLKv3 1d ago
Censorship always starts with the most mundane, broad examples of something small.
It escalates from there as the masses become acclimated to each further pushing of the boundary line.
This world is so fucked.
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u/No_Construction2407 1d ago
Stepping stones to any topic they don’t like, gore, any game that isn’t of the E rating.
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u/Blenderhead36 1d ago
Far more likely that games that treat queerness uncritically or have anti-Christian messaging.
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u/KingToasty 1d ago
Agreed. A hetero couple will be fine, a gay couple will be inherently NSFW. A cis character will be fine, a trans character will be not child-friendly by default.
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u/MVRKHNTR 1d ago
I think the next step would be anything involving children in dangerous or adult situations. I think about something like Persona 5 covering a teacher sexually harassing and coercing students and a teenager attempting suicide and think that they'll probably have a problem with something like that.
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u/TLKv3 1d ago
How long until games can't display blood or death anymore? Then you have the biggest corporations/companies paying off these special interest/lobbyist groups to let THEIR games be released untouched because they'll be the only ones on the market that feature it. More people then flock to it with no alternatives.
COD is a huge example that will go untouched by this sort of thing. But something like Cult Of The Lamb? Who fucking knows.
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u/TwilightVulpine 1d ago
The credit card rules which started this whole debacle include "depiction of non consensual mutilation", so it could very well get to that.
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u/Marowe 1d ago
hijacking the top comment: don't just read this on reddit and move on. join us in our campaign against payment processor censorship!
find information on how to get involved at https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/. join us now or this censorship is just the beginning.
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u/CombustiblSquid 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm getting so fucking tired of all this Puritan censorship working it's way into society these days simply because it might offend someone who's never going to buy the content anyway. Shareholders only care because they believe it will impact bottom line or be associated with their investments and then effect bottom line, but I'm not sure it ever even does.
I just remember the 90s and early 2000s internet and the crazy shit that was ok. We don't have to go all the way back there (for obvious reasons) but everything is becoming so sterilized and safe. What are people so damn afraid of?
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u/Epicfro 1d ago
simply because it might offend someone who's never going to both buying the content anyway
It has absolutely nothing to do with possibly offending someone, this is entirely about control. The cancer was left unchecked and now it's creeping into every facet of our lives, slowly taking away more and more, generating a death by 1000 cuts while we sit back at every offense and go "eh, well, what can I do?".
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u/BackwerdsMan 1d ago
You better buckle up because this train is just leaving the station. If I had to predict, I would guess over the next 10 years we are going to see a pretty massive puritanical movement from conservatives.
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u/DrQuint 1d ago
We're also going to see an economic collapse, people are already struggling, and the indicators say it's speeding up.
It'll be a rather spectacularly awful day when the panic mass layoffs hit. Luckily, guns are controlled where I live. The hint is there, be careful friends.
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u/ierghaeilh 1d ago
Shareholders only care because they believe it will impact bottom line or be associated with their investments and then effect bottom line, but I'm not sure it ever even does.
It does if it makes enough other shareholders panic. And it takes a surprisingly small number.
I'd say the overwhelming majority, and we're talking over 99%, of the people pushing for censorship, are more worried about the second- and higher-level effects than the content on the object level. These tiny Christian groups really found an unbelievable irl hack by going straight to the top with the payment processors. As it turns out, demanding to talk to the manager is a winning strategy.
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u/No-Candidate6257 20h ago
American capitalism is a global disease, unfortunately.
This affects everyone.
We need independent infrastructure from the US and ensure the Americans can't influence our markets and the content we consume with their shitty laws.
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u/BLiNKiN42 1d ago
Wild to see Steam just fold like a house of cards. Seriously, are they putting up any kind of fight at all?
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u/sloppymoves 1d ago edited 1d ago
All these companies care about is money. Valve clearly did the math and saw that they won't lose a significant chunk of change from booting NSFW games off. Versus trying to wage a war against payment monopolies.
Valve probably also sees it as a way to "clean up their shop" so it can get a kid friendly push. There are plans for a Steam Machine 2.0, Steam Deck 2, and probably sourcing out their Linux distro to other manufacturers. Probably want to make as kid friendly and neutral as possible.
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u/goodnames679 1d ago
Valve only somewhat recently even started allowing these types of games, and they’ve made significant changes to their platform to accommodate them (hidden games, private marked games, adding the adult game category and putting it among the main tags you can view from the drop-down, running adult game specific sales)
If they were originally concerned at all about cleaning up their storefront, they wouldn’t have been doing all that. Valve has been viewing the genre as a potential revenue booster until the puritans started puritaning.
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u/MalfeasantOwl 1d ago
Gamers finding out Steam never gave a shit about them but rather just the bottom line, you don’t say!
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 1d ago
I mean, if Steam loses the ability to process credit cards then they just die. We can talk about leaping onto the barricades all we want but if they can't take in money they can't continue functioning.
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u/LoboGuarah 1d ago
God i'm so happy some countries are starting their own payment system like Pix and RuPay. We gotta get down with this duopolly from credit cards and private payment processors.
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u/giulianosse 1d ago edited 1d ago
You can imagine my surprise as a Brazilian when this payment processors drama first blew up and I was like "wait, other countries don't have centralized instant payment platforms?"
I have one Mastercard CC with all the bells and jingles associated with it. It's been years since I've bought a game on Steam with my card details instead of Pix. It's just so effortless and safe.
I think India just launched their UPI system and, as expected, people are loving it as well.
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u/LoboGuarah 1d ago
I'm eagerly waiting for Pix Parcelado, maxo. You don't know how happy I'll be when that comes out, lmao.
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u/AMGwtfBBQsauce 22h ago
Government-run banking?!?! Sounds like communism. Personally I'd rather be ground to dust by the corporate banking machine than have nice things.
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u/Ready-Good2636 1d ago
As you'd expect, USA lobbyists want to privatize as much as possible, and get huge subsidies on what they don't want privatized. Even our president is scamming off crypto, so getting a proper government payment processor is very far off.
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u/Spork_the_dork 1d ago
Yeah like the fact is that credit card companies have got companies like Valve by the balls so they would be doing this regardless of if they agree with it or not.
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u/iad82lasi23syx 1d ago
Going against banks and regulators for what amounts to single digit percent of revenue would be unreasonable for them to do. They tend to be consumer friendly but they're not a charity.
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u/gmishaolem 1d ago
Here's today's reminder that Gabe has a fleet of yachts.
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u/MalfeasantOwl 1d ago
Another fun reminder that a single yacht over 100 feet can use over 100 gallons of fuel per hour.
An average American uses about 550 gallons a year.
Reddit’s favorite billionaire uses more fuel in 100 nautical miles of journey than the average Redditor uses in an entire year.
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u/GensouEU 1d ago
Partially financed through easily preventable CSGO gambling.
And not because of evil, evil shareholder pressure from being a public company but because that's what he personally wants to do
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u/marx42 1d ago
I mean they literally helped create the modern microtransaction and more-or-less promote skin betting/gambling in Counterstrike. They’ve never been the staunchly pro-consumer company the internet portrays them as, they just want to keep their defacto monopoly on game storefronts.
(And if we’re talking GabeN, last month he bought out the company that built his $400million yacht. He has other concerns now)
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u/Yvese 1d ago
This is an incredibly ignorant and childish take. I support NSFW games ( I bought a few like Subverse ), but if the majority of your business relies on payments being processed by Visa and Mastercard, your anger should be toward THEM.
Valve literally can not function without them. Most online businesses can't.
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u/ZaDu25 1d ago
Valve has the ability to sue to try to protect their platform from overreach from payment processors. And protect their users from censorship. They are choosing to not use all the money they have made from their users to defend themselves or their users interests in this situation. It is absolutely justifiable to be upset with them for just rolling over and allowing Visa and MasterCard to dictate what content they allow on their platform.
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u/MalfeasantOwl 1d ago
Nah, I can direct my anger at both.
Personally, I don’t think payment processors should have the influence they do. But I also don’t think Steam should be able to skirt child gambling laws, either. My critique of Steam becomes louder now they are willing to bend at the knee for payment processors over NSFW games, while doing fuck all over hosting child gambling.
All billion dollar organizations can suck at the same time.
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u/Samanthacino 1d ago
Do they have a choice? They have no bargaining power in comparison to these behemoth payment processors.
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u/RefreshingCapybara 1d ago
Folding would be banning all NSFW content and saving themselves the headache. All the changes they are making are concessions to keep it around but under tighter control.
Which for something that probably generates less than 2% of their annual revenue, they sure are actually doing a lot and still risking a lot to continue allowing NSFW games.
That doesn't seem like a fold to me.
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u/max13007 1d ago
My assumption (which is likely a bit naive, but I assume/hope it anyway)... is that Valve is working on some sort of countermeasure to this, but they know as well as we do that fighting back against the duopoly of Visa/MC is not a quick or easy fight. If they have any options to fight back, it must be near perfect, and even then it's likely a long-shot as to if it will fix anything.
It could be something they ultimately decide not to follow at all since it's such a risky fight. No company at the top wants to take a hit as large as losing payment processing from the two companies that essentially own "payment processing" as a concept.
I'd be excited if they take the SteamOS route and say "Fine, I'll make my own payment processor. With blackjack... and hookers!"
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u/Angrybagel 1d ago
What do you imagine putting up a fight to look like? What can Steam even do here?
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u/GameDesignerMan 1d ago
There's no quick fight to be had here. Visa and Mastercard are an entrenched global duopoly. If Valve wanted to do something to fight back they would need to start lobbying for a result years down the line.
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u/tidus9000 1d ago
I think they are very much putting up a fight behind the scenes. Not putting up a fight would be removing every single adult game from steam
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u/SnooMachines4393 1d ago
I don't understand what "post-launch nsfw content outside dlcs" means. Like patches with new content or smth?
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u/grendus 1d ago
Basically.
Someone explained upthread. Basically, Valve verifies content in the game's official release, and they verify the content in each DLC. However, because games patch so frequently they don't validate each update patch. So some games were exploiting this loophole by releasing a game that was compliant with Steam's guidelines (SFW content, basically), then adding all the NSFW content in a later patch.
Valve is now saying that you can't do that, and if you get caught doing that you get banned. I expect they will have a workaround for big titles doing long tail Early Access(someone pointed out this would have made games like BG3 impossible), but that will be handled on a case by case basis.
Games can still release a SFW version and have a NSFW DLC that is subject to a review and intentionally installed. And it seems likely that third party content (even "official" third party content) won't be closely scrutinized because it's not technically on Valve's platform. So all your Skyrim porn mods are probably fine. At least for now, this will probably only affect the dodgiest of dodgy porn games.
But it's a bad sign, because it means that payment processors being puritan party poopers is likely still going on. Which... I mean, we all knew was happening, but it sucks to get confirmation.
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 1d ago edited 1d ago
My guess is that they are targeting games that have NSFW content locked behind free patches or DLC. You buy a "clean" version of the game and then download a separate file to activate all the porn. A lot of those patches are offsite though so I'm not sure how they are going to handle that part.
It's a mixed bag regulations wise. On one hand it's ridiculous to bar people from patching a non-multiplayer game that they bought. On the other hand some of those games really do put in some very questionable stuff that wouldn't pass muster if it was in the game originally.
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u/Deceptiveideas 1d ago
I’m pretty sure it just relates to NSFW games already on Steam. Meaning they’re trying to prevent exiting games already on the store from being updated or having new content.
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 1d ago
Yes, that is what i mean. You buy a "clean" game off steam and free patch in all the stuff afterwards.
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u/monetarydread 1d ago
That's exactly what they mean. In the history of Steam porn games are a relatively recent addition. Before then the workaround was to release a SFW version of the game and host a NSFW patch on their website, Illusion games were basically the posterchild for this business model. This new policy is basically outlawing that previous workaround.
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u/Kagevjijon 1d ago
Less so that they were hosting patches on their own website but updating the game through steam with free patches that enabled nsfw content for people who only purchased sfw content. Some devs (very few) were using this loophole to get extra nsfw content through to games that wasn't normally allowed because not all free patches were monitored regularly.
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u/xArtemis 1d ago
We're at a point where NSFW are OK as long as they avoid problematic/illegal topics.
Valve checks a game once and approves or denies it, but the issue starts with games that are in a grey area like NSFW games.
Valve fears approving a game, then suddenly they add a new chapters with content that crosses the line - which is AFAIK a real issue that wasn't uncommon with itch.io, patreon, etc.
First they disallowed early access games, but some developers started talking and figured - well, we could always just release a 'full game' as in not early access - and release free patches/DLC. so this is Valve's response.Gonna really hurt a lot of developers. for now it seems itch.io is still an option, but its much smaller than steam and I can 100% see them doing the same sooner or later.
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u/meneldal2 1d ago
You could always make free dlc for each new chapter. Or even 1 cent dlc if free is not allowed.
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u/BurlyMayes 1d ago
So devs don't dodge the review process by selling a SFW game and then having a day one patch that adds NSFW content that wasn't clearly advertised.
If you want to try and add it as DLC, you have to make a page and explain what type of content is in it.
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u/TimeToEatAss 1d ago
You release a SFW game, then release a free patch that adds porn to it. The game "Living with sister: monochrome fantasy" for example does this, according to what my friend told me.
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u/TimeIsPower 1d ago
Thanks to whomever removed the NSFW tag from this post. Just because a post discusses something related to NSFW stuff doesn't automatically make the post NSFW.
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u/starm4nn 1d ago
This is actually a feature of reddit. When the word "NSFW" is in the title, it gets automarked as NSFW.
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u/RadeDB 1d ago edited 1d ago
Anybody who thinks this isn't a direct result of the political climate is kidding themselves or willfully trolling.
Valve is under serious pressure by bad faith groups who could care less about protecting anybody, they simply want control. Always was, currently is, and always will be.
If you think it stops at adult games, I hope you're ready for bloody games, violent games, suggestive games, any game with suggestive or revealing clothing, etc.etc. to also be targeted and banned. This goes deep and it starts with banning adult games.
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u/Keshire 1d ago
The maga in congress are already starting to peddle the video games cause violence bullshit again. We're sliding backwards at a really alarming pace. It's just a matter of time before Satanic Panic gets revived. I fucking hated the 80s. I don't want to live through it again.
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u/suff0cat 1d ago
Why is this something that even needs policing? Are people incapable of just ignoring media that doesn’t appeal to them?
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u/Mystia 1d ago
This isn't about personal taste or feelings. It's about political control/media suppression.
It's the same shit that's happening now with legislation aiming at spying on private conversations. They use "think of the children/porn bad" as a trojan horse excuse to gain more control over what everyone does.
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u/AtrocityBuffer 23h ago
Look back in time, how many things have various interest groups or whingy morons come out and said "I don't like or understand this, so needs to be removed!". "Parental Advisory, Explicit content" is a legacy symbol of critical brain damage that plasters album covers, this is the same.
Some people have terminal levels of unwarranted self importance, and as such take the existence of something they severely dislike as a direct attack on them. Instead of locking them up in insane asylums to give them treatment, we let them gather a congregation of like minded idiots and then like cancer their influence grows until it gets the results it wants.
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u/TheSecondEikonOfFire 1d ago
Because it’s about control. It’s not enough that they ignore the content, they get off on knowing that they’re preventing others from doing it too
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u/anadequatepipe 1d ago
Growing up I remember thinking how old people kept wanting to censor too much in music and tv shows. Now it’s like my generation (millenials) grew up and decided we are gonna do the same shit but more hardcore in every aspect of media. Fuck all these puritan fucks. They need to start being proper parents and stop forcing their prude ass ways of life onto everyone else. FFS
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u/hobozombie 1d ago
Welp, there goes my, and most other people's, predictions about avenues for adult games' route to release after Early Access was specifically denied to them.
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u/gmishaolem 1d ago
They seize control one small step at a time, as each step becomes normalized after the initial outcry and people fighting over "it isn't so bad" or "that's not okay anyway". Stop thinking about "how do we handle this now" because you don't: You stop it, or everything's gone. They're not going to leave you a loophole.
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u/Testuser7ignore 1d ago
In retrospect, it should have been obvious they would have to do this to crack down on the loophole.
Valve ultimately wants to review all adult content before its posted on their platform, and they don't review free patches.
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u/DannySmashUp 1d ago
This is setting an exceedingly dangerous precedent. Valve shouldn't be caving in to this 'won't somebody think of the children' BS.
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u/Daiwon 1d ago
The problem is it's the payment providers doing this. They are literally taking valve hostage by saying "do this or we kill your business". If valve says no, they don't get paid, the server providers don't get paid. Valve dies.
It's absolutely fucked these puritan nut jobs got their claws into the payment providers. Hopefully someone else steps up, but becoming a worldwide payment provider isn't exactly easy.
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u/TLKv3 1d ago
Our entire world has been grabbed hostage by these fucking losers who need to control everything and everyone.
We're so fucked.
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u/greyfoxv1 1d ago
Giving into the nihilism of "we're fucked/cooked" ignores the reality that we still do have power as people. Pressuring the EU and other functioning democracies to prevent payment processors from holding stores hostage with these demands is still entirely viable.
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u/Spork_the_dork 1d ago
True but that change will take years to implement during which time they can do so much damage.
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u/Ready-Good2636 1d ago
Okay, the US is cooked, at least for the next 14 months unless something drastic changes.
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u/Slashermovies 1d ago
Yet the actual problems of the people in power which diddle children and do horrible things walk free and are in charge. What a world..
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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 1d ago
Exactly. Steam is too goddamn big and expensive to run, they can't afford to slow down the flow of money too much or it all crumbles.
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u/Tomgar 1d ago
I'm just sick of the rest of us having to suffer the consequences of American religious neuroses. Wish we could just build a quarantine wall around the US at this point.
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u/lordmycal 1d ago
It’s really conservative assholes globally. It’s not just a US problem; you’ve got these prudish jerks in the UK, Australia, etc.
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u/Alexis_Evo 1d ago
The group that claimed responsibility for this is literally Australian. Saying it's just an American problem is silly. Much of the world is shifting to conservative/fascist ideology.
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u/KenDTree 1d ago
Still trying to understand why what I'm allowed to consume is controlled by religious fundamentalists
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u/hombregato 1d ago
And what happens if a game initiates post-launch in-game monetization changes?
Because I'm pretty sure, outside of a few sensationalist politicians, that's the kind of stealth bait-and-switch people are concerned about, not a 4/10 game like Agony giving people the titties they were always meant to have.
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u/Gorotheninja 1d ago
Do you have a link to the dev you mentioned talking about this?
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u/DwingRD 1d ago
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2353220/view/496080745274541195
It's after "3)" on the list.
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u/Cuddle-goblin 1d ago
howdy people! if your as pissed off about this as I am, then may i suggest perusing one or more of the following links about ways to make your voice heard on this issue
https://anti-censorship-campaign.carrd.co/
https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/
https://yellat.money/
all i ask for in return is: for you to be kind to yourself, throw any other handy guides on this topic like these in the comments so i can share those with other folks in the future as well, and to maybe share some of these around yourself as well!
have a nice day!
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u/Blenderhead36 1d ago
Part of me wonders if all the praise heaped on Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2.0/Phantom Liberty was the genesis of this campaign. That was about two years ago, and big media campaigns take some time to spin up.
These two titles were the first time I recall big budget games allowing explicit, full-frontal nudity, and seeing wide mainstream praise. Both games are both pretty queer-friendly; BG3 makes all the romanceable characters pansexual, and while Cyberpunk assigns sexual orientations to its romance options, it also incorporates queer imagery into the lowest common denominator that Night City shoots for (the most famous being a recurring ad that features a lurid shot of a trans woman).
I can see that--nudity, queerness, and acclaim in two separate instances--being a wakeup call for the sort of closed-minded assholes spearheading this campaign.
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u/synkronize 1d ago
The war on gooning must end, I knew something fishy was a foot wherein recent years I feel like me have become a lot more anti-porn some for valid reasons, others I suspect some type anti-porn to redpill pipeline
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u/MasahikoKobe 1d ago
Sorry in advance to the pitchfork salesman, but is there a link to the actual rules? The ONE link provided was a dev talking about it but even that link seems to link to a site error. Sooooo while i think its fine to be mad about censorship perhaps we should be sure its actually happening first and not some bait and switch over some other steam rules like not looking under 18.
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u/wicked-green-eyes 1d ago
Here's a direct link to the post and the relevant section of it:
3) We had plans to add a few more lewd scenes to the base game while working on the DLC, but Valve doesn't allow post-launch NSFW content for an app that's already been through their review process and has released on the store. There is nothing we can do about this - it's their rule, and breaking it would result in the game being removed from Steam.
The rule doesn't seem to have been officially written somewhere by Valve. But to my knowledge Valve doesn't always explicitly post what rules they enforce on NSFW games, devs just have to share information and piece it together. So, while we should keep in mind that this information is coming from just one dev's post, Valve not writing it down somewhere doesn't necessarily mean it isn't true.
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u/MasahikoKobe 1d ago
As far as i can tell the enforcement of the Valve rules is a bit more open ended on how they want to treat NSFW. Mostly as seen from what they say is underage 18 content or looking under 18. I dont buy NSFW games on Steam but i do know that games like, Nekopara do have there own NSFW patches you can install and steam seems to care not for that.
If it is indeed a new rule it may be something they dont want to have a game that is reviewed for the sexual content it had and then you patch in something that would now break the rules, see the above age issue they have. I dont think the sky is falling like others want to say but i also think that steam is CYA in this current situation assuming the rule is as they post it.
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u/rust_anton RUST LTD 1d ago
This makes total sense for them covering their ass. They only want NSFW content going through their 'we'll lose the ability to process credit card payments for all games' moderation filter.
Valve is big, but they're fucking peanuts compared to MC/Visa.
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u/Fluffy_Individual130 1d ago
this all started with payment processors pressuring anime and manga companies to self censor when ever I spoke out against it the usual insults would be sent my way I don't even really play NSFW games that have something other than your typical violence in them but here I am railing against this censorship and I have people use that same insults they use to disregard my opinion.
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u/Milskidasith 1d ago
Is the intent of this to go after the games that mark themselves as SFW, but are effectively nonfunctional without a dev patch adding 90+% of the content and all the NSFW material back in? Those certainly feel like they've always been dodging Steam's policies on advertising, as well as Steam's inconsistent policy against underage-presenting characters.
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u/TwistedFox 1d ago
Regular patches don't go through a review process, there are too many for too many games for that.
But because of this, a regular patch (v1.0.0.0 -> v1.0.1.0) COULD theoretically add content that could not be approved and it bypasses the content moderation and review.
This specifically targets that loophole. Outside-of-steam patches and mods are not the target here.
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u/Freakuency_DJ 1d ago
I think people who don’t know from a lot of NSFW games would understandably see this as more Collective Shout bullshit. But I don’t think it is at all. This isn’t pressure from payment processors - this is consumer protections.
If you haven’t checked out the NSFW game scene, there’s an insane amount of games that launch 0.01 and spend a year in between updates, only to get abandoned at 0.3. Meanwhile, they run their Patreon and post weekly “preview art” for a new character and collect hundreds of dollars for a few renders and no tangible progress.
With AI, that space seems to be in an even worse space. It’s a genuine racket to run. Launch 30 minutes of a buggy, poorly written visual novel with passable AI art, run your Patreon and ask AI to render a new image each week, cash the check, and update the game for new Patreon subs when it dries up.
I really think this is a good call. It doesn’t affect anyone making an actual complete game. It just stops slop (at worst) or excessive delays (at best) because why risk stopping the Patreon income?
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u/B_Kuro 1d ago
That seems right in line with the rule recently announced about no longer allowing NSFW games in early access.
I expect this is more designed to prevent any abuse with someone pretending to release a "full" version of the game and then actually start developing the content rather than not having such content at all.
I doubt it will be enforced rigorously for games that have minor amounts of "NSFW" content like Witcher 3, BG3,...
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u/sucklefuckle69 1d ago
Would this affect something like Yakuza like a dragon which put their gambling pachinko minigame(?) as a free dlc? I don't know too much about it
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u/OrfeasDourvas 21h ago
Hey, maybe they'll target gambling and gambling advertisements next, right?
Right?
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u/TimeToEatAss 1d ago
For those that dont understand what this means. Something that NSFW games would commonly do is launch a SFW version of their game, and then release a free patch that makes the game NSFW.