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In recent years, Steam has unlocked the potential for adult-themed games on Steam with the storefront even adding a “Hide Adult Games” feature to hide all that smut from the average user’s homepage.
However, some gamers are worried that there will be a significant reduction in adult content on the PC marketplace as new rules prohibit games that upset the digital store’s payment processors.
New Steam rules have been added
Via Automaton, the new clauses added to the Steam guidelines means that any game that upsets the service’s payment processors, card networks, banks and internet network providers will not be allowed to be sold on the store.
In the guidelines, Valve’s specifically mentions “certain kinds of adult-only content” will be prohibited from sale. This comes after new content guidelines on modding website Nexus Mods and a number of crackdowns on other websites as well.
In the past, services such as Mastercard and Visa have blocked the use of their cards on specific adult websites. Essentially, payment processors such as the aforementioned Mastercard aren’t fond of having their tools used to purchase certain types of content.
This comes after the controversy of the Adult-Only Steam game ‘No Mercy’ which included explicit and violent content against women. The game, which was purchased by hundreds of gamers, was recently removed from Steam and other platforms after making international news headlines.
In the wake of these new guides, the Recent App Events on SteamDB show a number of games that have been removed from sale. As reported by GamesRadar, this has mostly affected titles that are filled with adult-content of unsavoury themes including titles with, let’s say, heavy use of familial relations.
While some may decry censorship, specific forms of adult content are often prohibited by payment processors as sometimes they too can be blamed for the sale of specific content via their services. Additionally, the types of games that are being removed from Steam at the time of writing are usually found on other services such as Itch or more specific websites.
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