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)

 

[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

 

[frozen_runner]

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

Yep. This is just like the endlessly shifting Overton Window of which content is "safe" for advertisements.

If there are people who are paid to figure out how to protect the public brand image of the products and services they shill next to internet content... why would they ever stop making demands? Couldn't content always, arguably, be "safer?"

 

[Spud]

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

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

Maybe the users of Kiwi farms should start practicing some self control when it comes to doxing phonebooking then?

Or is "stop phonebooking" not even on the menu for this one?
The reason why you deal with the degenerate stuff being ackked is because the legality of it can be discussed after discussing whether or not a private corporation should have the ability to dictate what legal content a law abiding citizen is allowed to spend their money on (They shouldn't.), sure it's disgusting but it's legal content as it stands under the current law but of course all of this is to be sidestepped because owning people who waste their life away indoors jacking it are the greatest threat society has ever had to face and the greatest achievement one can gain.

 

[WuTangClan2299]

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.

Out of all the games to get mad at they choose failed director David Cage's dogshit slop to die on.

he added language says they will remove ANYTHING payment processors don't like

This is literally the biggest thing, do these retards not understand the nuke they handed to the people who already have all the nukes. They open to gate for every fucking retard to show up and abuse the fuck out of while they sumgly chuckle over thier "win". Will good job you got the futa incest game off steam now trannies can go after female devs for shit they said. And of course they're a bunch of fucking Aussies proving Moot right about who worthless they are.

 

[Fellen]

These "parents" will do anything not to be a parent and bitch to someone to do it for them. This time, it's the payment processors.

 

[regalterry]

These "parents" will do anything not to be a parent and bitch to someone to do it for them.

Unless we're counting all the babies they've aborted, I sincerely doubt any of the feminist cunts behind this have children.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

Maybe the users of Kiwi farms should start practicing some self control when it comes to doxing phonebooking then?

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

Not comperable. I don't think phonebooking is even remotely as harmful as gooning. If gooning was eradicated society would improve tenfold. If phonebooking was erradicated not much would change.

 

[frozen_runner]

Unless we're counting all the babies they've aborted, I sincerely doubt any of the feminist cunts behind this have children.

Feminists don't really care about kids. They hate porn because it severely dampens one of the biggest power levers they have over men. And they feel that way because their ideology is zero sum: if they do not have control over every situation, The Patriarchy will have the upper hand and might use it to abuse them. So, they have to control everything.

 

[Fcret]

Unless we're counting all the babies they've aborted, I sincerely doubt any of the feminist cunts behind this have children.

Collective Shout is actually a bit weird - it's a pro-life feminist organization. It also considers nearly all sex to be evil.

Only Australia could birth such an enigmatic golem.

 

[Spud]

Not comparable.

You're not getting it, both are considered legal content under the law currently. Having payment processors being the ones to censor the legal content rather than government making it illegal is why this place can't process a credit card, instead we get to play morality sperg about titties on a screen and name call one another whilst we're both being fucked by payment processors.

I don't think phonebooking is even remotely as harmful as gooning.

The Payment processors you've given authority to do not care and believe the opposite, now what? Walls of text on why pixels on a screen that make up an anime women are the greatest calamity plaguing the planet and that PP's should be given to authority to crush it 2nd order effects be damned but your speech is being impacted cause you can't post someones address.

These "parents" will do anything not to be a parent and bitch to someone to do it for them. This time, it's the payment processors.

Honestly at this point they deserve it, they at least know how to be a parent and target an issue whereas the people who complain just talk instead of doing anything about it. If they need authority to dictate what legal content a law abiding citizen what argument can you give against it, they obviously know better as they've got the records showing that when people have the free will and agency on how they spend their money they work a job that covers the bills then spend the rest on things they would enjoy, like seeing titties on an adult website, or playing video games with their friends or raising a family. Disgusting, they should be working longer to contribute to the GDP and to help pay welfare for the economic migrants refugees.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

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

I can’t believe you’re minimizing the danger and harassment of trans people. Yikes.

Yeah payment processors are a problem and need to be brought to heel.

 

[WickyWickyWoW]

Steam was unique because compared to the rest of the web they stayed more on the laissez faire side of things as the web turned into a niggercattle plantation. I do not blame valve for folding in the face of a international finance mega corporation that has been granted unlimited deplatforming power. If steam was added to the shit list the end result would be catastrophic.

I still cannot get over the fact people here on a site that has been subject to siege on all fronts in an effort to destroy it (financial blacklisting included) are cheering because porn is being censored by uppity feminists. Having this kind of cudgel in the toolbox means it will only be used again. The question is when, not if. Porn is always the first because it's a hill that isn't worth dying over, censorship only expands and grows from there.

Yeah payment processors are a problem and need to be brought to heel

This is not an easy problem to fix. Politicians on the left lust for this kind of censorship, private industry with zero accountability and functionally no recourse. Conservatives the rare chance they do care about being beaten with a cudgel are deathly allergic to bringing the private industry to heel. The biggest problem however is that in the consolidated finance landscape if these entities are threatened by legislative action they will do everything in their power to defend themselves, either legal bribery (lobbying) or a media shit storm

 

[frozen_runner]

I still cannot get over the fact people here on a site that has been subject to siege on all fronts in an effort to destroy it (financial blacklisting included) are cheering because porn is being censored by uppity feminists. Having this kind of cudgel in the toolbox means it will only be used again. The question is when, not if. Porn is always the first because it's a hill that isn't worth dying over, censorship only expands and grows from there.

This is all the worse because feminists are currently bedfellows with the stupidest and most vainglorious Christians, people who think porn is society corrosive (probably true in some ways) and so we have to empower the state to remove it from existence (lol no). Which is really just a way of saying their cultural values, which people collectively rejected need to have primacy again even if they have to use law to force people not to make Baby Jesus cry.

The idea we can sidestep the problem of a government too powerful to be trusted by always being in control of the government... that wouldn't even work if Christpilled and based trad patriots were always in office. These people are such dummies they don't seem to have noticed the guy they voted into office does things all the time they don't like, especially if those things make the Uniparty happy. Like fellating Our Greatest Ally and censoring everything.

 

[Mister Fister]

So, no Nigger satan rape madness?

 

[Fcret]

I still cannot get over the fact people here on a site that has been subject to siege on all fronts in an effort to destroy it (financial blacklisting included) are cheering because porn is being censored by uppity feminists. Having this kind of cudgel in the toolbox means it will only be used again. The question is when, not if. Porn is always the first because it's a hill that isn't worth dying over, censorship only expands and grows from there.

Like many other things, developed/western society went way overboard with pro-sex messaging to the point where we stopped taking shit like sex/porn addiction seriously for a couple of years and now we're in massive overcorrection mode.

 

[WickyWickyWoW]

Like many other things, developed/western society went way overboard with pro-sex messaging to the point where we stopped taking shit like sex/porn addiction seriously for a couple of years and now we're in massive overcorrection mode.

Whatever damage porn can do pales in comparison to what censorship can do, nothing good can ever come from censoring something that isn't objectively obscene, and unless if you have been in a coma for the last decade only a no brained nigger monkey can't see that this will only be used to bring about more and more censorship. In the grand scheme of things steam is small fry but is another casualty of the encroachment of the censorship engine. Remember Japanese devs started calling out the exact same bullshit happening in their corner of the world with Western payment processors forcing their will on developers and other media creators/publishers.
I remember the moral majority always on a crusade against the unclean for the intended or unintended expansion of censorship and I had hoped that the moralist sickness had died but I guess not. You are achieving the same end goal of leftists crying for censoring hate speech, giving the powerful the tools to sway public opinion and cover up corruption

 

[Terrifik]

valve said officially skill issue.

https://www.pcguide.com/news/valve-responds-to-payment-processor-controversy-hopes-devs-have-another-game-to-put-on-steam/

https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/1946172117147656672

Valve is compensating devs affected by the rule change
Thanks to an update from the publication GamingOnLinux, which contacted Valve, we now have an official statement on the issue. Valve has essentially confirmed the situation and has been “directly notifying developers” affected by the change, going on to say it is “issuing app credits” to devs should they wish to continue distributing on Steam in the future.

We were recently notified that certain games on Steam may violate the rules and standards set forth by our payment processors and their related card networks and banks. As a result, we are retiring those games from being sold on the Steam Store, because loss of payment methods would prevent customers from being able to purchase other titles and game content on Steam.

We are directly notifying developers of these games, and issuing app credits should they have another game they'd like to distribute on Steam in the future.

Source: GamingOnLinux
App Credits are a currency on Steamworks for developers to publish content on Steam. Usually, there is a fee of $100 for “each new app” published on Steam, but developers can purchase App Credits to prepare for upcoming releases. So, with the loss of content (and therefore revenue), it seems that Valve is refunding devs and hoping they return with a game or app that complies with the guidelines set by payment processors or network providers.
While you may agree that these adult-only games don’t belong on Steam, PC gamers fear further restrictions being put in place. Censorship at the hands of payment processors, networks, or anyone else outside of Steam itself could be an issue going forward if these companies decide to alter their own rules and standards. Plus, the (seeming) lack of warning will catch devs off guard.

 

[Do Not Touch Me Pls]

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

Welp everyone knows how to not put a game like ZOG's nightmare or Megachud into Steam so not a big deal in that aspect.

But watch what happens when Hyperdimensional Neptunia gets kicked off steam, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley gets kicked off Steam and 95% of Anime games are kicked off Steam and are only available to Russians and the Japanese as the United Nations continue shipping children from Ukraine and Gaza to the residences of rich elites.

I remember the moral majority always on a crusade against the unclean for the intended or unintended expansion of censorship and I had hoped that the moralist sickness had died but I guess not.

Remember it took 30+ years, probably even 40 to 50 years for the Comics Code Authority bullshit arc to end completely. DC Comics is one of the very few Comic Book companies that are still following it until 2011 (from the 60s by the way). We are only like 5 years into this arc.

I'll be surprised if this ends within a decade or ends without totally annihilating the video game and NSFW art industry.

 

[God of Nothing]

valve said officially skill issue.
https://www.pcguide.com/news/valve-responds-to-payment-processor-controversy-hopes-devs-have-another-game-to-put-on-steam/ https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/1946172117147656672

how much does it cost to create a virtual game distribution platform?

they seem to make gangbusters and the three major ones are kikes, chinks, and slavs

 

[Slap47]

Whatever damage porn can do pales in comparison to what censorship can do

It does very little. Countries that ban porn games like S. Korea and India treat women like garbage and have literal rape cultures. If anything, porn being legal correlates with women being treated better in a society.

You could argue the porn industry harms performers, but in this case we are talking about animations and programs.