Steam Begins Removing Games After Updating Its Publishing Rules

On July 16, Steam updated its game publisher rules to include a clause that prohibits content in violation of any standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors, banks, or network providers. Following the rule change, Steam has removed some adult-oriented games from its storefront that violate the updated guidelines.

The update came at a busy time for the PC’s top storefront. Earlier in July, some Steam users reported that they were able to hide mature content warnings that appear when browsing the platform. This move allows users to bypass a pop-up that periodically appears and asks for a birthdate in order to see games that contain violence, sexual content, or other tags that would warrant a mature rating. While the methods for hiding mature content warnings on Steam are unclear, it remains to be seen if Valve will make this a global feature or if it will be specific to certain countries or territories as a user option.

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While Steam still contains a repository of adult-only games, the storefront is starting to crack down on specific content that game developers are allowed to publish. As reported by GameSpark (and translated by Automaton), Valve has updated the Steamworks Onboarding rules and guidelines about the content that can be distributed on the storefront. While rules that prohibit games containing hate speech, defamatory statements, or similarly egregious content from being published on Steam have long been in place, a 15th rule was added that targets specific adult-only content. Per the updated Steam rules, this change applies to “content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers.” However, it is not clear how narrowly or broadly this rule will apply to mature-rated games.

Steam’s Updated Rules Target Specific Adult-Only Content

• Steam’s latest rule change prohibits games that violate a payment processor’s terms from being published.
• The move specifically targets games with sexually explicit content and similar adult-only tags.
• Some games have since been removed from Steam following the rule’s adoption.
• It is unclear how narrowly or broadly Steam or its payment processors will apply this rule.

According to SteamDB’s event history page, Steam has already started removing various games with explicit sexual content and similar labels from the platform following the rule’s implementation. This move is in line with a similar stance recently taken by Nintendo to curate its eShop. The Nintendo Switch 2 developer and publisher portal was updated on June 5 to prohibit spam content and products that are “damaging to the Nintendo brand” from being published on each regional eShop storefront on a case-by-case basis.

Although games that earn the notorious Adults Only (AO) rating have largely been banned or made difficult to obtain, some have found a home on Steam and similar storefronts. Only time will tell how many games will be affected by Steam’s new guidelines.

Brand

Valve

Original Release Date

September 12, 2003

Original MSRP (USD)

N/A

Weight

N/A

Hardware Versions

Steam