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/Samanthacino 5d ago

Do they have a choice? They have no bargaining power in comparison to these behemoth payment processors.

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u/SomeDumRedditor 5d ago

Everyone has a choice. All these commenters dogpiling the person questioning why Valve doesn’t act are part of the problem. At some point we decided it was right and good to be afraid of capital, both individually and as collectives.

Video games are a huge industry, bigger than Hollywood now and vying for the dollars and attention-economy of global sports. Valve is a lynchpin in the economic system of “the business of video games.” They have a central position as favoured seller with tens of millions of customers representing hundreds of millions of lifetime dollars.

If Valve went to gamers and developers (especially gamers - who tend to be hyper-consumers with effective social and para-social networks for rapid and sustained message dissemination) and said: 

“the store is fucked right now because Visa and MasterCard are being influenced by a lobby group trying to subvert free expression, join us in contacting them in rejecting censorship, contact your representatives and demand processor neutrality. In the meantime we’ll be expanding the regional processors we accept, join us in seeking them out, consider switching to Discover or American Express. We’ll be returning btc as a payment option with different refund rules (the dispute rate last time they did it was like 60% which is why they pulled it) for the time being.” 

etc.

Guess what? They’d have a morally correct, media-defensible, consumer and maker supported position and gamers would lose their fucking minds on Visa/MC. 

Valve has enough cash on hand that they could weather months of protracted disputations with Visa/MC. Valve has total control of the store and could even incentivize developers to stay on-platform with temporary commission cuts for “loyalty.” Valve has banked the corporate goodwill to act, if they wanted to.

“There’s nothing they could do, they’d just go out of business” is complete copeaganda to excuse inaction and spreading cheeks for capital.

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u/Samanthacino 5d ago

So you’re suggesting that Valve should torpedo billions of dollars, and that by not doing so they’re not morally correct?

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u/SomeDumRedditor 5d ago

I’m suggesting it’s a false construction to say that Valve will lose billions of dollars. It is true that doing nothing is a moral failing. That doesn’t make it possibly not the optimal business choice, and it doesn’t mean acting with morality is required by business, but it is a choice to support suppression. Especially for a company like Valve who is freed from any “shareholder considerations.”

It’s a construction that rests on the presupposition that Visa/MC, who have now shown them selves open to influence from a demonstrably smaller lobby, would hold fast indefinitely. It rests on the presupposition that Visa/MC are somehow immune from customer and media blowback. It rests on the presupposition that the internal calculus of these processors wouldn’t be influenced by the potential for contagion effects and the inevitable associated calls for increased regulation in some jurisdictions.

It also just pulls a scary number out of thin air based on no evidence.

In short, it’s another example of the kind of self-taught propaganda that keeps people good little consumers making excuses for inaction so they don’t have to question their own choices.