Business Steam rules updated to prohibit content that violates rules set forth by payment processors and banks - Valve's rules regarding what developers "shouldn't publish on Steam" have a new clause regarding standards set forth by payment processors.

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/steam-rules-updated-to-prohibit-content-that-violates-rules-set-forth-by-payment-processors-and-banks/

https://archive.ph/NXq04

Valve's rules regarding what developers "shouldn't publish on Steam" have a new clause regarding standards set forth by payment processors.

2025-07-16 17:17
Amber V



Valve has updated its rules regarding content that developers aren’t allowed to publish on Steam (as reported by Game*Spark [archive]). The “Rules and Guidelines” section of Steamworks Documentation now has an extra clause, and it suggests that publishers are required to comply with rules and standards set forth by various third parties involved in processing electronic payments. The rule seems to be predominantly related to adult content.

What you shouldn’t publish on Steam:
15. 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. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.

Prior to the update, the list included 14 clauses, prohibiting things like hate speech, malware, sexual content depicting real people and any form of exploitation of children. The new 15th clause suggests that Steam may additionally have to crack down on specific types of adult content in response to the requirements of payment processors and banks. There are currently no specific examples of what this may entail.

Update (2025/07/15 at 18:30 JST): According to SteamDB [wayback], a large number of games has been removed from the platform in the past 16 hours. Judging rom the list, it appears “sex simulator” type games with keywords such as “incest” and “slavery” make up the majority. There are some confusing cases like the removal of the Ace Attorney-inspired investigation game Trails of Innocence, although this could be a coincidental deletion.

On a related note, various video game and manga hosting platforms in Japan have in recent years run into trouble with payment processors and credit card networks. Due to certain content on the platforms going against the (often undisclosed) rules and standards of third parties handling payments, the platforms ended up without support for credit card payment. This has led to loss of revenue and even the closure of platforms like Manga Library Z. It is possible that Steam’s new rule is a means to prevent such complications from arising, however, as the specific “rules and standards” of the payment processors are also unclear, publishers might need to be extra cautious with releasing their games on the platform.

Related articles: “It’s a security hole that endangers democracy itself.” NieR creator speaks out against payment processors pressuring Japanese adult content platforms

Visa Japan’s CEO says disabling card payment for legal adult content is “necessary to protect the brand”

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Niche Gamer: Steam updates rules to comply with payment processor censorship (archive)
Wccftech: Steam Publishing Guidelines Updated With Clause Prohibiting Content That Violates Payment Processor and Bank Rules (archive)

Rock Paper Shotgun: Valve change Steam's rules to let banks and credit card firms prohibit "certain kinds of adult only content" (archive)

In particular, this could lead to a stifling of games that are in any way non-conforming, particularly given the current climate of repression in Valve's home country, the USA. I know about the rule change thanks to Youtuber and self-described former game developer NoahFuel Gaming, who has posted on Bluesky about the potential fallout for projects the banks and financial corporations consider "adult" because they deviate from reactionary framings of sex and gender. As the Youtuber writes: "Queer content gets flagged as 'explicit' even when it's PG. A trans dev making a personal story? 'Too controversial.' A surreal queer VN? 'Sexualized.' Financial deplatforming in action."

GamesRadar: Steam now prohibits games that violate the "rules and standards" of payment processors, banks, and more, and users are worried it might affect more than just "certain kinds of adult-only content" (archive)

"Yeah... this is something that looks innocuous at first glance but it's a trojan horse," another believes. "LGBTQ+ has a habit of being mysteriously flagged as 'adult only.'" On ResetEra, similar points are being shared, as one writes: "Today it's porn games, tomorrow any game with LGBTQ+ content because it ends up labelled as 'adult.'"

Notebookcheck: Steam tightens adult content rules after pressure from payment giants (archive)

As spotted [archive] by TheGamer, this triggered a mini-purge according to the Steam Database, with many problematic games such as "Incest Tales", "Wolf on Rail", "Sex Village", "Slave of the Police Officer", and many more, being delisted from the storefront.

GamingOnLinux: Valve gets pressured by payment processors with a new rule for game devs and various adult games removed (archive)

 

[Fagnacious D]

It doesn't matter unles they accept only crypto and non-American payment methods (or cut it off from anyone but the Russians and Japanese basically).


It's called Globalism and guilt-based manipulation. You cannot completely make something as big as the UN vanish through realistic means and there is a reason why the Vatican can take control of the entirety of Europe for a millennia and ingrain all of its beliefs in society past there. Nobody wants to become the next Epstein or be accused as a violent mass murderer after all.

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At this point I think the only way out of this is a full blown Comic Code Authority level overturn. It took 30+ years to completely overturn that by the way. The Credit Card Companies are only part of a much bigger kraken.

I was going to compare it to the Hayes Code (basically the same thing but, for movies). We may see something very similar officially/publicly implemented in the future.

 

[umseriously]

Couldn't Valve just accept steam bucks in exchange for these "problematic" games? I know dlsite does something similar.

 

[Do Not Touch Me Pls]

I was going to compare it to the Hayes Code (basically the same thing but, for movies). We may see something very similar officially/publicly implemented in the future.

They don't need to and they essentially already did. It's just enforcing the code is now much easier because they now have ways to control the ideas of the entire world, making it so that you need way more than just the USA and Europe fighting back and it's not just a bunch of nerds, AI "artists" and Gacha slop gamers protesting it in Twitter.

 

[Endless Torment]

Couldn't Valve just accept steam bucks in exchange for these "problematic" games? I know dlsite does something similar.

DL site sells currency on a different site, but they still just block games from appearing in other countries apparently.
The thing is payment processors can still say they won't process any payments if you keep these games on your site and they could even do the same for brick and mortar stores regarding steam cards.

 

[Mike Matei's Penis]

These Collective Shout cunts are also supporting the digital ID age check shit coming in Australia.

 

[skunt]

I hope someone at Valve lost their job for giving the OK to add porn games to steam.

Nobody liked greenlight when it was there but removing it has just opened the floodgates to all manner of shovelware. It's gotten so bad that Valve needs congratulating for finally drawing a line in the sand and saying no to crypto games - the bar is so low.
I like steam and valve but i liked it more when they gave a shit about what was on their store.

 

[Sprocket]

Didn't Trump make noise about ending this during his election campaign?

 

[Accidental Racism]

Porn is not free speech, and it isn't speech at all. That being said: Total Payment Processor Death, mind your fucking business noseniggers.

 

[Slap47]

I was going to compare it to the Hayes Code (basically the same thing but, for movies). We may see something very similar officially/publicly implemented in the future.

Its much worse than the Hayes code. The industry chose to follow the code, and you could go around it by just not working with Hollywood. This is being forced on an industry and you simply cannot work around it because payment processors have a monopoly and can pressure literally everybody to blacklist you.

 

[WuTangClan2299]

The thing that actually pisses me off is how fucking sumg Collective Shout is over weaponizing payment processors over this shit. I hate when the left does it, I hate when the right does it, hate it when a bunch of autistic redfem do it. These people are really too fucking retarded to know how bad this is

 

[Oilspill Battery]

These Collective Shout cunts are also supporting the digital ID age check shit coming in Australia.

DEAR LORD NO, NOT MY HECCIN PORNERINO HOW WILL I GOON NOW!??!?

Poor ausies will not have to go and buy porno at the store instead... no wait shit that requires ID too.

 

[ZazietheBeast]

The thing that actually pisses me off is how fucking sumg Collective Shout is over weaponizing payment processors over this shit. I hate when the left does it, I hate when the right does it, hate it when a bunch of autistic redfem do it. These people are really too fucking retarded to know how bad this is

Funny enough, Feminists being uppity was exactly why people initially had no problems with Troons. The AGP perverts in dresses kept the cunts in line and watching feminists completely shut down when faced with a troon was hilarious. Then those pervs started running everything leading to their downfall.

That being said, I see this as society dealing with the old infection that lead to Troon insanity. The screeching Femenazis that demanded everything to be 'inclusive' and 'safe' which let the Troons take political power like nothing. What must be done is to make feminism utterly unpopular and to bring the banks to heel unless they want another Andrew Jackson in the future.

 

[Fcret]

Collective Shout is currently on twitter simultaneously doing victory laps about this and melting down whenever someone in their replies call them cunts.

Also for anyone thinking this is just porn games - Collective Shout has been lobbying for years to get shit like Detroit Become Human banned via pressure to retailers/payment processors.

All that being said, I think their recent hustling on this stuff is down to them being a bizarre NGO thing which was probably being backchannel funded via USAID so they funneled pretty much all of their resources into this to get something done. I don't think the org is long for this world given the current political climate in the west.

 

[Slap47]

DEAR LORD NO, NOT MY HECCIN PORNERINO HOW WILL I GOON NOW!??!?

Poor ausies will not have to go and buy porno at the store instead... no wait shit that requires ID too.

You're basically empowering the state to expand real-ID to everything. People mass bypassing this with VPNs will push the banning of VPNs.

One thing leads into another.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

You're basically empowering the state to expand real-ID to everything. People mass bypassing this with VPNs will push the banning of VPNs.

One thing leads into another.

Maybe the gooners should start practicing some self control then hmm?

Or is "stop gooning" not even on the menu for this one?

 

[regalterry]

DEAR LORD NO, NOT MY HECCIN PORNERINO HOW WILL I GOON NOW!??!?

Are you so spiritually dead that you'd champion this state overreach, that is bound to spiral onward and eventually impact something you care about?

Even if your anima is a hollowed, blackened husk, do you really want to give these disgusting feminist cunts a win?

 

[Slap47]

Maybe the gooners should start practicing some self control then hmm?

Or is "stop gooning" not even on the menu for this one?

Stone aged hunter-gatherers carved gooning statues out of wood and stone. It will always rise again.

 

[Do Not Touch Me Pls]

Didn't Trump make noise about ending this during his election campaign?

It never happened. Also technically it's EU law neither the US or JP themselves can do anything about it.

Europeans (and by extension Australians) do not believe in Freedom or Transparency.

 

[Fcret]

It never happened. Also technically it's EU law neither the US or JP themselves can do anything about it.

Europeans (and by extension Australians) do not believe in Freedom or Transparency.

Steam can very easily regionally block games. The current problem is due to lobbying campaigns on payment processors themselves which is why the burgernet has become so irate.

 

[ChefKiss]

Anyone who thinks this stops at porn games is a drooling fucking moron, there's no list of prohibited content, no rule stating what is and isnt allowed, the added language says they will remove ANYTHING payment processors don't like
What's that? You're a game developer who said something on twitter once about trannies or rapefugees? Sure would be a shame if your game got mysteriously removed in one of these purges.
What level of actual fuckwit do you have to be to look at the past years of debanking, gofundme's being cut off and payment processors cutting people out of the system to not see the direction this all goes in
It was only porn games because it was a feminist group this time, good luck when the hundreds of other NGOs smell blood in the water and decide to take their bite