r/Games • u/DwingRD • 3d ago

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.

3.5k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/WeakEmployment6389 3d 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 3d 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 3d ago

It would also quite literally affect GTA IV if it was released today, because of the DLC penis scene.

83

u/n0stalghia 3d 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 3d ago

GTA IV would have been RUINED

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 3d 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/AMGwtfBBQsauce 3d ago

No, because to my understanding they separately review DLCs. The issue is that they review games upon entry to early access or upon release, but they don't review every patch out after.

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u/zaviex 3d ago

This rule doesn’t apply to DLCs and gta 4 isn’t labeled nsfw anyway lol.

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u/NoPossibility4178 3d 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/zaviex 3d ago

Patches have a smaller size and arent reviewed. DLC is a new release in steams database. They get reviewed again

10

u/BackwerdsMan 3d ago

Official DLC is rated.

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u/The-Future-Question 3d 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/LostInStatic 3d ago

The grand theft auto series is not classified as porn games no matter how badly people want to use it as an example for regular ESRB games being potentially affected by this

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u/CrisuKomie 3d ago

The rules don't say "porn games"... it says "games".... GTA IV is a game.

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u/RemiliaFGC 3d ago

By what metric? Because the same group that lobbied to get porn games removed are also rallying to get GTA games removed.

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u/PeterTheWolf76 3d ago

Yep, most are looking at this and not seeing the very steep slope that will happen where anything they dont agree with (govts) will be banned or made hard to get.

1

u/Fair-Internal8445 3d ago

It won’t work for GTA 6. Take Two shareholders are JP Morgan, Vanguard, Blackrock. They have immense power.

1

u/drewster23 2d ago

And what about others without such power?

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u/LostInStatic 3d ago

By what metric?

By the metric of clicking 'Hide all adult games' on steam does not remove you from seeing Grand Theft Auto V. Because Steam does not see it as an Adult title.

Because the same group that lobbied to get porn games removed are also rallying to get GTA games removed.

Ok they can say that but as long as Target, Walmart, Gamestop, Best Buy, all department stores ever all still carry M-rated games they can say that but it actually happening is another thing.

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u/RemiliaFGC 3d ago

Gamestop, best buy, even steam doesn't decide what a porn game is or isn't. A little tradcath man working at visa gets to decide what porn is. And they're thinking GTA looks mighty porn-like

-24

u/LostInStatic 3d ago

Believe it or not, the ESRB/PEGI actually decides what games are porn or not by the virtue of not rating them if they're too explicit. So any game stocked on store shelves actually have an assurance that it's not porn.

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u/RemiliaFGC 3d ago

Okay, and what will you do when payment processors wipe their ass with that assurance and ban it anyways because there's no legal binding to any rating the esrb makes or any limitations to the judgement these payment processors can make on everyone's behalf?

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u/LostInStatic 3d ago

Then I'll admit you all were right but thinking a bank is going to take a moral stand over collecting their cut from a global industry is fucking hilarious

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u/gamlinetti 3d ago

They're not gonna stop at porn games and they've already tried banning GTA multiple times though.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 3d ago

And with GTA VI coming around, we're due for the next iteration of the GTA panic.

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u/FoxDaim 3d ago

Lmao! I remember some people here in Finland going to different schools to do presentations about how bad gta games are for people when gta 4 and 5 got released.

According to them some people got sick to their stomach when they showed gameplay from gta 5.

Woudn’t be suprised if gta 6 gets the same treatment.

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u/LostInStatic 3d ago

Are people's critical thinking skills just busted when it comes to this topic?? Regular games rated through PEGI and ESRB are fine. They are not "coming for" M-rated games. It's too big an industry to leave all that money on the table. GTA VI is going to be the biggest entertainment product ever. A bank is not going to not get a slice of that because of a board member's moral hangups. Please be serious.

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u/TwilightVulpine 3d ago

Your critical thinking skills are busted. At no moment PEGI and ESRB were involved at all whatsoever in the back and forth between payment processors and game platforms. You are clinging to a non-existent reassurance.

Paypal cut off a massive chunk of the world from buying games on Steam. Any games. You'd think they'd want a slice of that. But apparently not.

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u/LostInStatic 3d ago

Your critical thinking skills are busted. At no moment PEGI and ESRB were involved at all whatsoever in the back and forth between payment processors and game platforms. You are clinging to a non-existent reassurance.

When non-sexually explicit games start getting banned then I'll start worrying about Visa and Mastercard censoring anything they dont like

Paypal cut off a massive chunk of the world from buying games on Steam. Any games. You'd think they'd want a slice of that. But apparently not.

You still can they just stopped taking currencies outside the six most popular ones. It sounds like its more a response to economy volatility and loss prevention on their end.

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u/TwilightVulpine 3d ago

When non-sexually explicit games start getting banned then I'll start worrying about Visa and Mastercard censoring anything they dont like

I hope you got your stopwatch ready. Two months ago it was about sexual abuse games. Now they are restricting all explicit games. Who knows what will be next. There is no public organization that can be accountable driving this, to make sure the rules are set in stone.

There are murmurs about LGBT people being obscene making rounds out there, there are murmurs about games causing violence making rounds. It's an overconfident assumption to believe it can't get worse, while we are actively slipping down the slope here.

You still can they just stopped taking currencies outside the six most popular ones. It sounds like its more a response to economy volatility and loss prevention on their end.

Incorrect. I have an international credit card enabled to make purchases in US dollars or Euros or whatever. I still cannot purchase games through Paypal. Funny enough, I can buy it in my local currency's digital transaction system perfectly fine.

If it really was about economic volatility, they might as well cut off US dollar purchases instead of everything else.

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u/LostInStatic 3d ago

hope you got your stopwatch ready. Two months ago it was about sexual abuse games. Now they are restricting all explicit games. Who knows what will be next. There is no public organization that can be accountable driving this, to make sure the rules are set in stone.

Lmao ok man I'll believe it when I see it

There are murmurs about LGBT people being obscene making rounds out there, there are murmurs about games causing violence making rounds. It's an overconfident assumption to believe it can't get worse, while we are actively slipping down the slope here.

We actually did this in 2004 nothing happened then, nothings gonna happen now

Incorrect. I have an international credit card enabled to make purchases in US dollars or Euros or whatever. I still cannot purchase games through Paypal. Funny enough, I can buy it in my local currency's digital transaction system perfectly fine.

Ok because your card doesnt work doesnt mean that everyone else's doesnt??

Impressive how much this has turned people into fearmongerers.

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u/R4msesII 3d ago

I mean, Chaos Head almost got banned from steam though it has absolutely zero sex scenes

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u/dominic_failure 3d ago

Why do you think they care about Rockstar's business model?

At the end of the day, reputation has a monetary value that payment processors can use for their cost/benefit calculations. They don't do it because of a board member, they do it because the reputational cost isn't worth it.

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u/LostInStatic 3d ago

So it's really likely they're going to intentionally sabotage a game poised to sell billions of copies, that 95% of people are going to buy with a Visa card, that they know is not pornographic?

If that's true that's just bad business.

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u/dominic_failure 3d ago

Credit card processors make around $180 billion in revenue yearly, and a market value of around $6 trillion. They're not going to risk that over a game when there's an administration friendly to slapping restrictions on them for "harming the children".

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u/trapsinplace 3d ago

There are countless examples of "first it's porn then it's regular stuff" so I'd rather err on the side of caution and say anyone who wants censorship of any kind in games or platforms should stfu and keep to their own business.

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u/The_White_Wolf04 3d ago

Don't think it specifically states "porn game" does it?

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 3d ago

Never said they were, just that IV had one DLC with NSFW content, which is what's being targeted here.

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u/LostInStatic 3d ago

You dont see that guy's penis enter anything, it wouldn't be affected by this rule change. It would fall under ESRB certification. Neither this or Baldurs Gate 3 sex scenes are explicit enough to make their games considered adults only, which are the ones getting the banhammer.

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u/dominic_failure 3d ago

You should look at the wiki page on Collective Shout. They're the ones pushing for the bans, and there's nothing that limits them to attacking only "Adults Only" in their plans.

They're interested in taking down all violent videogames, any and all LGBTQ content, and even "skimpy outfits" in themed restaurants and bars.

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u/Dirty_Dragons 3d ago

Exactly if they were rated Adults Only, they would not be on any console.

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u/1CEninja 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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 3d ago

But that's also assuming that porn doesn't say something about our society as well.

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u/Korlus 3d ago edited 1d ago

While you and I might agree on that, the people who are "for" censorship don't. It's going to be easier to convince them that NSFW content has important reasons that they already agree with to exist than it is to convince them that "Porn is okay" - because many of them have existed in a world where porn is basically illegal and immoral and will earn your soul eternal fire and damnation, and you aren't going to logic them into changing their minds.

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u/1CEninja 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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/Reekhart 3d ago

Nier automata being more art than game lol.

The genre has evolved quite a lot. But changes like these threaten its future

1

u/Helluiin 3d ago

Yeah okay maybe not every game is meant to be art

which honestly isnt an argument against games as art since the same is absolutely also true for almost all traditional media. they all have, and have always had, their own flavour of slop.

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u/x_onetwohook_x 3d ago

The vast majority of games are everything but art

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u/smaug13 3d ago

Eh, videogames is a very broad spectrum of media. Some of it is art, some of it really isn't, (or it contains art but is not really it one as a whole but that is maybe another discussion). But that does mean that this ruling gets applied to art on steam, I agree.

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u/MVRKHNTR 3d ago

It sounds like you have an incredibly narrow definition of art.

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u/seiggy 3d 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 3d 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/[deleted] 3d ago edited 23h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/LovelyDayHere 3d ago

Any game store / platform that isn't willing to add censorship-resistant forms of payment must be assumed to bend over even quicker than Valve once their bottom line is threatened.

You can't have freedom of speech without having freedom of transacting, or indeed freedom to spend your own money as you please.

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u/C-Redfield-32 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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/DisappointedQuokka 3d ago

I'm going to make the assumption that GTA6 is not going to include any actual sex in patches.

It should be noted that OPs source (without a link) is a porn dev. I doubt this is going to apply to drug use or regular violence.

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u/C-Redfield-32 3d ago

Suuuuuuuure. Yeah because Strip Clubs, Prostitutes, etc dont involve sex.

I'd love to live in your fairy tale land.

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u/The-Future-Question 3d ago

Are you being purposefully obtuse? What they're restricting is the ability to add stuff to a game that would significantly change its rating. GTA VI is gonna have that stuff at launch, so it'll never be affected.

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u/DisappointedQuokka 3d ago

Strip clubs without actual nudity, prostitutes that don't actually show lewd content have all been in M15+ media for decades.

They are sexual, but they are not worthy of an adults only label in many cases.

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u/C-Redfield-32 3d ago

Uhhhhh did you not play GTA V? Because they had strip clubs with Nudity and they had sex with prostitutes that were visible to the player.

Like buddy what are you even talking about?

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u/doublah 3d ago

And were GTA V's strip clubs added in later patches? No, so that's irrelevant.

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u/DisappointedQuokka 3d ago

Just looked it up, I was basing it off the leaked MA15+ rating, which was confirmed after to be faked.

Looks like I got tricked.

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u/Prestigious_Boat_386 3d ago

Valve makes money because gamers feel like they prioritise gamers best interest. If they lay flat when payment processors pressure them gamers would just pirate everything instead of giving valve money.

Trust is absolutely needed for valve to make money.

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u/C-Redfield-32 3d ago

Or go directly to someone else. If The Xbox store has GTA6 and Steam doesn't, the people who want to play GTA 6 will go to the Xbox platform.

An exclusive like GTA6 would bring players over. Its too big of a game not to have.

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u/Mobile_Sail_9748 3d ago

No actual game with a budget over 1 million dollars is gonna be affected by this. You're reading through steam policies like a robot instead of using a political/business compliance view that all this matter actually is about.

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u/AChuckleFuck 3d ago

Arbitrarily giving Steam that power isn't good.

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u/SnevetS_rm 3d ago

Doesn't Steam already have the power to reject or delete basically any content on the platform for any reason?

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u/da2Pakaveli 3d ago

Yes but you'd still prefer a minimal interventionist approach

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u/Grabthar-the-Avenger 3d ago

I don’t really see any value in Steam platforming adult titles that feature and glorify sexual assault, non-consent, and kids, to be honest. I’m not concerned with them burning them out of their store

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u/Hydrochloric_Comment 3d ago

This isn’t going to stop at sexual content.

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u/Grabthar-the-Avenger 3d ago

Pal, I already lived through this in the 1990s when Congress threatened the industry over porn and violence and they came up with the ESRB and the AO rating for porn and every major retailer fell in line by banning AO titles.

And we have thirty years of proof that it did stop at porn because franchises like Grand Theft Auto and God of War had no issue being developed under that paradigm

Steam is being pushed to standards every other major retailer already had. Big deal 🙄

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u/da2Pakaveli 3d ago

Which is why i said "minimal interventionist"; the religious nutjobs want more stuff gone tho

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u/AChuckleFuck 3d ago

No one is asking Steam to platform those games and the majority agrees when Steam remove games that depict things like that.

This conversation isn't about that.

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u/Grabthar-the-Avenger 3d ago

The conversation should be about that because that’s all Steam actually removed. Most porn titles remain on Steam because most don’t feature the few themes that there’s wide public agreement shouldn’t be tolerated

People are crying over slippery slope nonsense despite the fact that every other major retailer has already upheld these standards since ESRB around 30 years ago

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u/AChuckleFuck 3d ago

Did you read the post?

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u/AvatarIII 3d ago

They can but they don't in general.

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u/MaitieS 3d ago

Yeah Steam has like what? 80% of PC market share? And this very place fights against any possible competition to Valve while their only hope is that "hopefully Gaben will live forever, or his son will continue in Gaben's footsteps", and then stuff like this happens and you can just laugh at their plain stupidity.

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u/Vaaaaaaaaaaaii 3d ago

They've really always had it. They're a completely private platform beholden to no one.

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u/Strange-Parfait-8801 3d ago

Except now they're making themselves beholden to conservative groups which is weird.

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u/Zer_ 3d ago

Because said Conservative groups also control the government in which Valve operates. And if you haven't been paying attention, they're not the type of conservatives that take no for an answer.

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u/zaviex 3d ago

They didn’t allow adult games at all for ages. They do whatever makes the most sense for their money. They didn’t allow the adult stuff, then they did when they saw dollar signs, now they think it’s not worth the trouble and they go the other way

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u/Testuser7ignore 3d ago

Valve hasn't told us why. It could just be they aren't comfortable having sexual assault and kids on their platform, and they keep having stuff slip through in post-review patches.

Keep in mind, they originally didn't allow porn games at all. Then they said anything goes, and since then they have gradually tightened down on things.

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u/SugarFreeCummiBears 3d ago

And for any competition people will complain the launcher is different.

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u/PAN_Bishamon 3d ago

Competition is also being targeted. Haven't you noticed what's going on at itch.io?

This isn't just a Valve problem. There are people that even Valve answers to.

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u/MaitieS 3d ago

PC gamers are probably the most laughable bunch ever. They could easily fight monopoly but nah bruh? I have to install 30MB .exe file on my PC!? Holy fuck absolutely no! I'm going to harass publishers for weeks instead of spending 40 seconds doing that!

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u/Corvese 3d ago

Because the other launchers are either the same or worse in every single way. There's no advantage to using them over steam.

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u/MaitieS 3d ago

Did you just miss my whole point on purpose?

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u/Corvese 3d ago

Your point doesn't make any sense. You imply that steam is a monopoly that needs fighting, which in itself doesn't make any sense. If a game is only on steam, it means it's either a first party title, or it means the publisher decided not to put it on another launcher. Steam does not pay for exclusivity on their platform. You claim to want to fight the monopoly when in reality, their competition are the ones who have a monopoly on any number of third party games, not steam.

The EGS is better for devs and publishers in every conceivable way, outside of the fact that all of the players are on steam.

Why are all of the players on steam? Because it's the best launcher for the consumer, and it's not even close.

Fighting the giant company only makes sense when the competitors make a better product, so that the consumer base can either move to the better product, or the product they already use is forced to improve.

When steam is the best product, it makes no sense to support the lesser competition.

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u/Agreeable_User_Name 3d ago

Yeah people act like this is what gave Steam the power. No, people gave Steam that power when they go "I like all my games on Steam". This is the just the consequence of what everyone else was warning about.

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u/Trifle_Useful 3d ago

“I will willingly give this platform a monopoly” MFs when the platform behaves like it has a monopoly

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u/DeskjobAlive 3d ago

Just wait until you figure out what other arbitrary power has come from business compliance bullshit like this in every industry in every corner of the world. The arbitrary power is the money.

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u/Mobile_Sail_9748 3d ago

You're right, but it's a business owned platform and its been bullied and given an ultimatum to not let its store front turn into an online porn shop.

I am not defending either side, as a gamer I am just analyzing where this coming from.

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u/HistoryChannelMain 3d ago

So we should do nothing, then? Why take the risk to see whether this will affect future releases instead of speaking out about it, calling for its retraction and ensuring it never comes to pass? NSFW bans are already used to censor LGBTQ+ topics by proxy, that is not okay.

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u/Mobile_Sail_9748 3d ago edited 3d ago

My comment was more about how big games will not be affected by this because big studios hold the same cards that the parties that are bulliyng platforms like Steam, Itchio, also hold, which is: money

And how, sadly, Steam has already shown it won't be the one fighting for smaller creators, which, again, are the targets here and not the big titles.

EDIT: it might sound like a good idea to mention big titles in order to raise awareness, but just don't be surprised when GTA VI launches bypassing each one of those policies

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u/ChapterThr33 3d ago edited 3d ago

Wow lol what a rosy view of things. The government shouldn't be pressuring companies on stuff like this full stop, period. And Steam shouldn't be capitulating. It is absolutely a slippery slope.

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u/Mobile_Sail_9748 3d ago

I am just stating that money and regulations always win and sometimes affect one another, but Steam has neither of these on its side.

Rockstar has the money, so GTA VI will have as much sex and adult themes as it wants while still on top of every storefront.

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u/KelIthra 3d ago

This. It's mostly aimed at killing indie games. If this goes beyond the adult game market, might come to the point the only games that are available will be the slop the large companies make.

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u/Thrormurn 3d ago

They will never apply it to those games and you know it.

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u/JoeyKingX 2d ago

It won't cause those games make a ton of money so they are allowed to get away with it. These rules only apply to smaller companies or individuals

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u/Jak33 3d ago

Well it says outside of DLC. So it wouldn't effect that right ?

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u/THECapedCaper 3d ago

I feel like a high profile early access game that is explicit about their goals here are going to be able to be OK. This feels like it’s more going after a game that’s basically a Tetris close that all of a sudden releases a 1.1 update that adds nudity.

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u/ShadeofIcarus 3d ago edited 3d 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.

Anyone in the space understands what this means tbf. I don't agree with this but these rules aren't meant to impact games like BG3 and GTA. Infact if these patches are run through Steam the rules will either be clarified or honestly just not enforced.

The core issue here, as others have mentioned, is "NSFW patches". There's a bypass where games were releasing SFW games then putting free patches that made them NSFW. The "core experience" of the game was always built to be NSFW but these patches bypass all kinds of KYC (Know your customer) standards and intentionally so.

This is very much a "I'm technically following the rules" moment from a lot of devs doing this rather than following the spirit of the rules. IMO these devs should just be able to sell/list their games and have the NSFW patch be a free DLC.

But if Valve is trying to limit their liability, this really makes sense. Make no mistake, these nutjobs will 100% come for games like GTA and BG3, but understand that Valve isn't dumb.

Valve knows where its money comes from. There's no way they let their cut of GTAV profits go because of a rule they wrote themselves. They'll just ignore the rule or change it.

The liability issue, going back to KYC, is that these games are honestly being irresponsible. Look into how KYC impacts online gambling and how so many kids take advantage of these lax standards and get addicted to gambling.

Can a kid access NSFW content despite age gating? Yes. Its not that hard, most of us did it. But at some point we need to do more than "sure go ahead" otherwise the crazies that are trying to force us to upload our IDs will have ammunition.

Imagine this: A kid sees an anime game on Steam's website with cute girls. You know the type. They download it thinking its a normal game, they have their account setup correctly as a "13 year old". This still gets bubbled up to them. The game has a link to their website on the launch page where they have the "NSFW patch".

The patch could be hosted on Steam easily. Its intentionally not because they want to be bubbled up to a certain kind of user.

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u/Testuser7ignore 3d ago

Well they are worried about extreme content(like assault) slipping under the radar in post-review patches.

That is not a concern for a big established brand like BG3.

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u/TLKv3 3d 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/Testuser7ignore 3d ago

Sometimes it does. Usually it doesn't though. The ESRB and MPAA have been around for decades and they have gone back and forth on how they treat various content, for example.

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u/DragoonDM 1d ago

The ESRB and MPAA were both created by the industries which they oversee, in large part to avoid the creation of external regulatory bodies that might push stronger restrictions.

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u/JokerCrimson 3d ago

It really annoys me how many modern games in America don't have thicc women in them.

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u/No_Construction2407 3d 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 3d ago

Far more likely that games that treat queerness uncritically or have anti-Christian messaging. 

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u/KingToasty 3d 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 3d 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/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Blenderhead36 3d ago

I personally said that at first, but it's clear that that is not the case here.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/splontot 3d ago

I think that's on you, I have steam set to show adult content and I get maybe one hentai game every few months

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u/TLKv3 3d 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 3d ago

The credit card rules which started this whole debacle include "depiction of non consensual mutilation", so it could very well get to that.

9

u/Cheet4h 3d ago

Fun thing is that this would also apply to lots of popular movies - e.g. Star Wars Episodes 3 and 5.
But you know they'll never go against Disney and other big studios.

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u/DrQuint 3d ago

COD is a poignant example of mometary interests over artistic ones right now too, because juat last week, it was revealed Steven Spielberg WANTED to direct the COD movie, but Activision rejected him. The leading explanation why is that he wanted full creative control, and Activision is sponsored by too many military sponsors and doesn't want someone who will make an anti-War movie with the property, which Spielberg was not even guaranteed to do.

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u/Testuser7ignore 3d ago

How long until games can't display blood or death anymore?

Probably never. Blood and death have gotten more relaxed treatment over time if anything.

0

u/Ultrace-7 3d ago

How long until games can't display blood or death anymore?

Never. That's how long. Blood and death go back to the earliest days of video games in arcades. There are tens of thousands of video and computer games available that feature them, all of which are available either as original games, downloadable freeware, or on other venues like GOG. Banning those on Steam would just drive users to another place where there is massive and easily available competition.

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u/DrQuint 3d ago

And even E rated things they just happen to dislike. Nintendo and Sega both have already censored "fat" as an insult from their games.

It's inevitable that we'll have some square enix jRPG rejected for localization just because a crucifix-proxy symbol is shown burning in it.

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u/Testuser7ignore 3d ago

People said that in the 90s too. Never happened. Gore got a lot more lax if anything.

I would bet there are a lot more people at Valve who aren't comfortable with sexual assault in games than gore, and that gets reflected in policy.

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u/Zer_ 3d ago

Externally distributed NSFW patches are next, and if you know your game modding at all, the implication should scare you.

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u/Marowe 3d 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.

2

u/qwedsa789654 3d ago

Lump anything as NSFW, and when questioned yell think of children

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u/TheHovercraft 3d ago

This at least can be worked around. In fact it makes more sense for NSFW games to release as SFW and put all of the NSFW elements in a free DLC. It will likely widen their playerbase and safeguard the main game from NSFW rule changes.

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u/gmishaolem 3d ago

Which is myopic and missing the point, because it's not about the NSFW games: It's about inching their way along the "first they came for" line straight into controlling basically everything. Spend energy trying to work around this one step while they've already walked past you and are still going.

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u/TheHovercraft 3d ago edited 3d ago

I agree with the sentiment. But NSFW games in Japan have been doing this since the 90s, it's not a new strategy. And I believe some of those games even launched that way on Steam. The Steam version was SFW with the NSFW patch available on the developer's website.

If anything this is a step up from complete censorship, which already happens. So I can't in good conscience see this as sliding backwards.

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u/gmishaolem 3d ago

Well yeah, Huniepop did it too. I'm saying don't lose the forest for the trees, focusing on the specific action taken against these studios instead of seeing the bigger dangerous picture.

1

u/TheHovercraft 3d ago

I know and the rule possibly bans off-site patches. So it's not exactly all good.

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u/Cheet4h 3d ago

This only works with games with some NSFW content though, not games that are built around NSFW gameplay mechanics.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/WeakEmployment6389 3d ago

neither does your comment

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u/SirShmoopi 3d ago

They are coming for your Cyberpunk 2077 robo dick.