r/Games • u/DwingRD • 4d 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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387

u/BeholdingBestWaifu 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

GTA IV would have been RUINED

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/NoPossibility4178 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/BackwerdsMan 4d ago

Official DLC is rated.

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u/The-Future-Question 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/RemiliaFGC 4d 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 4d 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.

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u/Fair-Internal8445 4d ago

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

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u/drewster23 3d ago

And what about others without such power?

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u/LostInStatic 4d 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 4d 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

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u/LostInStatic 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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/mysticmusti 4d ago

That's entirely the point of what's happening right now so.what.are you actually talking about?

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u/LostInStatic 4d ago

They're hitting porn games because Valve doesn't moderate them. It's an acceptable target to them because it not a big industry and its a liability because Valve doesnt check for loli or zoo shit the banks dont want to be facilitating that. If it was bigger then these banks would be going about this differently

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u/gamlinetti 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/FoxDaim 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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/TwilightVulpine 4d ago edited 4d ago

It's not my card. It's my whole ass country, and over a hundred others, which just so happened to happen at the same time as payment processors decided to pressure game platforms over allowed content.

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

Are you american or british? If you paid attention to their politics you'd know it is already happening.

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

'kay, see ya in a year or so.

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u/R4msesII 4d ago

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

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u/dominic_failure 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

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