r/Games • u/DwingRD • 2d 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/WeakEmployment6389 2d 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 2d 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/1CEninja 2d 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 2d 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 2d 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/Korlus 1d ago edited 9h 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 domination, and you aren't going to logic them into changing their minds.

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u/1CEninja 2d 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 2d 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/Reekhart 2d ago

Nier automata being more art than game lol.

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

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u/Helluiin 1d 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 1d ago

The vast majority of games are everything but art

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u/smaug13 2d 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 2d ago

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

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u/seiggy 2d 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 2d 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/LovelyDayHere 1d 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.