It has encouraged faith and support in age rating organisations like PEGI and ESRB.
Audio transcription
“Hello everyone and welcome back to another GRTV News Today we have a rather interesting one for you actually, it’s got a lot of depth to it Basically, as of recent we’ve seen Steam and itch.io, two different sort of PC gaming platforms have taken a stance against sort of adult games, anything that’s regarded as sort of 18 plus really where if it contains certain themes then they have been simply just removed from the platform So that’s come under the pressure of payment processing partners taking a stance against profiting from said games that have maybe two mature themes in them Now you could argue that’s a good thing and I would agree that it is a good thing because you don’t really need to see some of those things in video games But at the same time, the reason and why this is going through is perhaps a sign of something that we don’t want to see creep into the video game industry You know, other people, organisations that perhaps don’t have the same level of heritage and experience as say an age rating body like PEGI or ESRB coming in and making decisions about which games we should be able to play But anyway, again, lots of weird things happening here so let’s dive on in and talk about it after So yes, the UK Games Trade Body issued a statement in regards to Steam’s removal of adult games with this following Steam and itch.io both removing several adult titles due to new guidelines from payment partners So last week one of the biggest stories surrounding Steam and itch.io, two platformers that made the decision to remove several adult games and titles from their stores to meet the new guidelines being pushed forward by payment processing partners This has led to a bit of an uproar as it seems to suggest that payment partners have a greater level of influence in determining what video games can be sold than respected age rating systems and bodies do something that neither fans nor industry members seem too happy about This has caused UK Games Industry Trade Body to speak up and issue a statement which GamesIndustry.biz has now reported upon The comment says that payment partners would have faith in the trusted age rating systems and enforcement mechanisms behind them rather than going over their heads and imposing their own restrictions The full statement explains the following The UK Games Industry champions creative freedom while taking its responsibilities to players seriously Clear and consistent age ratings are a crucial part of helping people make informed choices about the content they engage with That’s why UK strongly supports the use of robust classification systems like Peggy across all platforms including those hosting adult or experimental content This ensures that content is labelled appropriately, that younger audiences are protected and that creators can publish with transparency We believe payment providers and platforms alike should have confidence in trusted age rating systems and the enforcement mechanisms behind them This whole situation spirals from the No Mercy incident where an organisation called Collective Shout took action against a game that featured sexually explicit and violent acts A game that was soon removed from online platforms but not before the damage was done leading to an open letter being published asking for payment processors to stop profiting from games that featured rape, incest and child abuse While the intention behind this move is to take a firm stance on adult games is no doubt pure this does also come as the UK is facing the issues that the new Online Safety Act imposes which blocks the majority of adult content, mostly anything with an 18 plus rating unless users submit personal data or complete a face scan from being accessible Something that has caused an uproar due to the risk of sharing said information with third party posers and also how it sets a precedent for blocking any information and content that the government now deems to be adult So, yeah, a little bit of an unusual situation this as a whole You can see where, again, you can see where the you can see how the intentions behind it are probably quite pure When we say payment processing, partners are talking things like Visa, Mastercard all these sort of like banking systems in a way and basically they’ve been put under a lot of pressure recently because this letter’s come out and it’s targeted them specifically and said if we can’t trust these guys to do it, i.e. Steam and NH.io then you guys need to take a stance and say that we’re not going to accept payment for these things and their response is basically, fine, well, if we’re not going to accept payment for them and that’s the only way to pay for games on these platforms, then you’ve got to get rid of them and, again, while you can see the intention with it is pure it’s led some to worry about sort of a knock-on effect and that’s the thing that’s happening in the UK right now with this Online Safety Act because, again, while the intentions behind it are probably pure there’s now a law in place that allows the government to decide what people can and cannot see on the internet unless they share their personal information with a third-party company or, likewise, they do a face-scan and share that online, essentially so that it can be accessed elsewhere and with that precedent now in place, the big issue is that whoever comes next can use that as a way to further decide what people should be able to see and that’s the issue that decisions like this, when they come from organisations when they come from companies that maybe aren’t designed to do the thing in the first place it leads to some concern because now the payment process and partners have showed that they have power in a way that perhaps even PEGI and ESRB do not have and PEGI and ESRB have, for the longest time, been the age rating classification board the company that tells you this is what this game is, this is why it’s rated in such a way it’s either for you or it’s not and now this is happening and it’s a very different situation across the board but no doubt this will all be changing in the future it’s a very volatile situation that I think we’ll see continuous developments in as more comes out be sure to keep your posting updated so yeah, no doubt we’ll be talking about it again in a future GRTV News so thank you for watching and I’ll see you all on the next one“
