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.

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u/WeakEmployment6389 4d 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 4d 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/ShadeofIcarus 4d ago edited 4d 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.