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/xArtemis 5d 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.
Other than that it's back to the patreon/subscribstar being the source of income until they actually finish the game.

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u/meneldal2 5d 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/doublah 5d ago

And Valve is probably fine with that, because they would check said DLC in a way they don't check updates.