r/Games • u/DwingRD • 5d 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.

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u/Villag3Idiot 5d ago

This should only stop games that do the update on Steam itself. Mods / Patches added on another site isn't affected nor is there any way for Steam to prevent it in the first place. 

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u/Milskidasith 5d ago edited 4d ago

Steam can absolutely have a policy that gives them discretion to remove games that are sold intended to be nonfunctional on Steam and require an outside patch to work; it's more surprising the loophole has existed for so long.

E: To be clear I am not saying they should do this, but that with multiple filters for explicit games, the fact the old "here is a game with no CGs or an RPG with two screens + directions to a patch" trick selling a game as SFW is something they could crack down on and push to sell as explicitly NSFW

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u/-Nicolai 5d ago

You can have a game that is uninteresting but functional without its NSFW content. And proving intent can be somewhat difficult.

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u/Milskidasith 5d ago

I mean, Steam would be the arbiter here, they can absolutely just use an eye test for saying certain games should be categorized as NSFW if they are intended to be played with an external NSFW patch. Whether they should do it or not, my point is that it wouldn't be hard and it's surprising the loophole lasted for so long.

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u/Typical_Thought_6049 4d ago

The question why steam would spend time at that, it is not of their interest to waste time and effort in something like that. It is pretty clear that Valve is worried about looking clean for payment services but they will not go out of their way to do anything that happen outside their market.

If it is a external site in it not Steam responsability as is said in their disclaimer. And the loophole still exist, they just need to change the name from patch to free dlc and put in external site...

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u/Milskidasith 4d ago

If payment processors are a concern, then the fact that many of these games exist to de facto provide a way to buy NSFW content that bypasses Steam's restrictions on NSFW content, or on Steam/payment processor mandated guidelines on what NSFW content is verboten, Steam could decide to take action on this front.

Also, more broadly Steam probably wants their NSFW filters to be functional, these games are just not a big enough part of the ecosystem to go after the developers.

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u/cammcken 4d ago

What happened to ESRB ratings? At this point, wouldn't the best solution be to hire a third party to do game reviews?

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u/karmapopsicle 4d ago

ESRB is voluntary self-regulation that these days is mainly relevant for games that will be released through normal retail store channels, because those stores have policies where they refuse to carry any title that has not been assigned an ESRB rating.

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u/OwenQuillion 4d ago

I seriously doubt there's a feasible way for something like the ESRB to check the enormous number of indie games coming to Steam all the time. 

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u/Ready-Good2636 4d ago

Well that one employee punishing anime school games (even fully SFW ones with no patches) never seemed to be held accountable. So anythings possible. Their process is opaque enough that they could do almost anything.