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)

 

[TheRedChair]

This whole bullshit with Valve and the money lender is about control. It's always about control.

This happened to me in 95 with Bank of America. I made a late payment. It was not much on the balance but I screwed up on the time. The next day I was locked out of my account for not making a payment. Took a week to get things get cleared up. So I closed my everything in that corporation with extreme prejudice. They countered by affecting my credit rating.

This affected me when I made my purchase of my second home as the loan officer ask me on that ding by BofA.

My counter to the loan offcier was... "I'm paying in cash why so in fuck do I care about a deceitful corporation that tries to throw their weight around? I'm too busy making money. I' don't have time to deal with glorified dickheads".

Again... No one fucking cares about who you are... what you are... what you look like... Etc.
What corporations care about is.... "What is your net worth". How much money they can squeeze you before you are not worth anything.

If it wasn't for the fact that, "I... Had... Money..." I would have to so the same monkey dance that all people do when trying to get a fucking loan. Especially 30+ years ago.

IMHO it's about the ESG/DEI/Woke Ideology that is firmly established in corporate society today. The Valve excuse is nothing more than the same type of bullshit done by Paetron, Kickstarter, Indeego, Etc. Just another different spin on it.

And of course Value is a corporation that loves their money. It's just they took the easy way out and will throw those "offending" games under the bus. The owner of Value drank the cool aid a long time ago. He was just smart enough to stay out of the lime light until now.

And in a way this is Value's own damn fault. They should have policed their games better so... those with power could do what they are doing now. Fucktards.

Again... It's about control. It's always about control. And it's going to get worse.

When governments/corporations have control of your methods of gaining monetary wealth we will be screwed. Why do you think I have a large cash on hand that is out of the financial system? In the past 20 years I've see the reduction of our financial freedoms.

What happend in Canada of freezing your bank account can happen and DOES happen in the US.

What happened to the farms is no different. Just another spin about control.


Once we go to digiatal money, we will be so fucked... Because I saw this happened first hand..

A late payment. A frozen Account. Remove your money from that corporation. Ding on your credit score because some manager got his ass chewed for losing a sizable amount in their bank. Dick head affects your ability to accertain wealth UNLESS you go money to back your mouth and YOU mean it on how you use it.

I expect more draconian controls of your financial freedoms in the near future. Hopefully I'll be dead when the shit hits the fan.

 

[mindlessobserver]

I expect more draconian controls of your financial freedoms in the near future. Hopefully I'll be dead when the shit hits the fan.

Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.

It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.

And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as first fruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

A second angel followed and said, “ ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

 

[rusty_von_shackleford]

Itch.io have just nuked their adult/erotic/nsfw categories too.

itch.io's owner has been pro-censorship for years and released this statement in response to Valve allowing Hatred to be on Steam:

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/itch-io-founder-brands-valve-s-open-door-steam-policy-ridiculous-

Corcoran, who founded the Itch digital marketplace back in 2013, is of the opposite opinion, and tweeted that "a platform that allows 'everything unless it's illegal or straight up trolling' is ridiculous."


"Please keep your malicious, derogatory, discriminatory, bullying, harassing, demeaning content off Itch.io," he continued. "Our ban buttons are ready."

 

[rusty_von_shackleford]

Rather you should question yourself this: if a bunch of retard femminist managed push payment processors into censoring that shit, then what will stop them to removed other stuff later?

Many of these platforms willingly remove games that conflict with their ideology already.
Itch.io has a long list of games they do not allow, it appears many people aren't aware of this

https://itch.io/updates/games-that-hurt-people-arent-cool-updates-to-the-itchio-acceptable-use-policy

https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms

itch.io aims to create a safe environment for users of the site and service. This requires a community that is built on goodwill and responsible behavior by its members. The posting of content or other actions that, in the Company’s sole discretion, degrades the experience of others may result in account termination without prior notice. Prohibited actions include but are not limited to:

• Uploading viruses or malicious code or acting in any manner to restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Service;
• Spamming or sending repeated messages, junk email, contests, surveys or any unsolicited messages;
• Posting unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory content;
• Bullying, intimidating, harassing, defaming, threatening others, or violating the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others;
• Posting content that promotes or participates in racial intolerance, sexism, hate crimes, hate speech, or intolerance to any group of individuals;
• Soliciting, harvesting or collecting information about others;
• Violating copyright, trademark or other intellectual property or other legal rights of others by posting content without permission to distribute such content;
• Hacking, maliciously manipulating, or misrepresenting itch.io’s interface in any way;
• Creating a false identity for the purpose or effect of misleading others; or
• Violating any applicable laws or regulations.

It turns out that the payment processors agree with them ideologically, except their list has one more bullet point on it. Unfortunate!

 

[Thiletonomics]

When governments/corporations have control of your methods of gaining monetary wealth we will be screwed. Why do you think I have a large cash on hand that is out of the financial system? In the past 20 years I've see the reduction of our financial freedoms.

What happend in Canada of freezing your bank account can happen and DOES happen in the US.

What happened to the farms is no different. Just another spin about control.

Once we go to digiatal money, we will be so fucked... Because I saw this happened first hand..

A late payment. A frozen Account. Remove your money from that corporation. Ding on your credit score because some manager got his ass chewed for losing a sizable amount in their bank. Dick head affects your ability to accertain wealth UNLESS you go money to back your mouth and YOU mean it on how you use it.

I expect more draconian controls of your financial freedoms in the near future. Hopefully I'll be dead when the shit hits the fan.

China is also doing this exact thing with how WeChat has been pushed to be the most commonly used payment method there. If your WeChat account gets banned (since it is also tied to your identity), it effectively means that you get debanked and you also get a big hit to your Social Credit Score. Yes, there are other payment methods like Alipay, but China has been heavily pushing into digital currently-only with things such as implementing a digital version of the Yuan RMB, and VERY SMALL cash withdrawal limits per day. (I think you can only withdraw up to 200 Yuan = $28 USD PER DAY) The withdrawal limits are also there to prevent bank runs, with China's economy woes are becoming more and more apparent.

 

[Staffy]

Posting on this site in support of this shit is indicative of a failure to understand something as basic as a breakfast question. It isn't just porn, we've seen this easily extend to "hate" or even "offensive" speech as this site has found out the hard way with how difficult it is to even donate to Null. It isn't just porn that these puritans chase after, they're squeezing your freedom to express yourself in all directions all the time.

I'm convinced that the people expressing their support of banning the coomer games here are sticker farming, expecting that the usual anti-porn stance a great number of people support here will net them stickers. Low-value posts.
It's just low effort posting. These people should fuck off to reddit or kill themselves: rope, or down the street, not across the road. Or just do a flip. Because they're not helping.

 

[FunPosting101]

I'm convinced that the people expressing their support of banning the coomer games here are sticker farming, expecting that the usual anti-porn stance a great number of people support here will net them stickers. Low-value posts.
It's just low effort posting. These people should fuck off to reddit or kill themselves: rope, or down the street, not across the road. Or just do a flip. Because they're not helping.

Personally, I'm not one of those anti-porn people, but even if I were, I would still understand that this payment processor bullshit is a much more serious issue than "gooning".

 

[TheRedChair]

China is also doing this exact thing with how WeChat has been pushed to be the most commonly used payment method there. If your WeChat account gets banned (since it is also tied to your identity), it effectively means that you get debanked and you also get a big hit to your Social Credit Score. Yes, there are other payment methods like Alipay, but China has been heavily pushing into digital currently-only with things such as implementing a digital version of the Yuan RMB, and VERY SMALL cash withdrawal limits per day. (I think you can only withdraw up to 200 Yuan = $28 USD PER DAY) The withdrawal limits are also there to prevent bank runs, with China's economy woes are becoming more and more apparent.

Oh yea.... I'm aware of this. Very scarry. I also was told by a contact your life is based their Social Score... Incredibly brutal way to isolate those that China considers Undesirable.

You have a low social score you can not even travel from place to place or eat at certain places.

Very Orwellian over there.

 

[FunPosting101]

Many of these platforms willingly remove games that conflict with their ideology already.
Itch.io has a long list of games they do not allow, it appears many people aren't aware of this
https://itch.io/updates/games-that-hurt-people-arent-cool-updates-to-the-itchio-acceptable-use-policy https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms
It turns out that the payment processors agree with them ideologically, except their list has one more bullet point on it. Unfortunate!

Holy fuck is this guy ever stupid. This is tumblr-tier levels of self-ownage. Itch.io exists almost entirely because of various sorts of "deviant" material, if the pervs leave, the site will lose most of it's value.

 

[Terrifik]

Hello....
ok
well they went back around instead following list of targets in vice article

https://x.com/ChibiReviews/status/1948747331207053624

---

mission accomplished

https://x.com/p9cker_girl/status/1948636949365023088

 

[The Saltening]

apparently Collective Shout is behind this. Some retarded feminist activist group. I fucking hate these people so fucking much.

This change to steam and ichio does not effect me personally... BUT its about the principle of it. What is next? It never ends here. They will keep pushing further and further.

 

[Terrifik]

apparently Collective Shout is behind this. Some retarded feminist activist group. I fucking hate these people so fucking much.

This change to steam and ichio does not effect me personally... BUT its about the principle of it. What is next? It never ends here. They will keep pushing further and further.

in Austraila

 

[Male Idiot]

Only Vantablack Gorilla Niggermonkeys are on the side of ((((( Juden Big Banking)))))) and their feminist dogs.

This is cutting off the face to spite your shnoz.
Sure trannies will be mad, I guess. But there are way less self destructive means to make them buttmad than this.

 

[TheRedChair]

I'll place this here. This valudates my last comment. One shitty Feminist organization from Australia, the Money Lenders ran with it and now has decided to go further than Just Steam.

Why. Because too many people are playing video games.... This is part of your society.... To the powers that be it needs to be properly controlled by what corporations what you will buy with the right socialistic proganda involved.

You WILL eat your bugs.
You WILL live in your 15 minute cities.
You WILL listen to OUR voice.
You will OWN.... NOTHING...

Again... This is ALL about control.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

This happened to me in 95 with Bank of America

Bank of America back then were TOTAL dickheads.

For a while military members were advised not to go with BoA for a big reason.

When you were deployed, they drained your account then claimed you didn't get any of your direct deposits. THey'd show paperwork to the DoD and Finance "Oh, see, we never got the transfer." It would take 3-6 months to get your money back.

By the DoD giving it to you.

Then, during the GWOT early days, BoA was foreclosing on active duty member's houses when they were deployed EVEN IF THEY WERE PAID OFF.

Fucking BoA should have been put out of business decades ago for their bullshit.

 

[X Prime]

View attachment 7690704

This is why this whole thing has been so difficult. It's not like people on this very forum section haven't been saying Twitch is a degenerate gooner pit for years.

I just want to accomplish Total Twitch Death and Total Payment Processor Death simultaneously. What a world.

 

[Terrifik]

fake copium being deeployed

https://x.com/acvalensVT/status/1948827851870065099

 

[HTTP Error 404]

when patreon goes, then it's over. once it does, OnlyFans logically follows. but that's probably too optimistic. either way, patreon can't not be bent because many of its top earning projects are financial tugboat furry porn games that more than fit the criteria of obscenity, as well as bestiality and hypnosis.

Patreon already declared in April 2025 that all content, including porn comics, has to have "affirmative declarations of consent." That is to say, it's not good enough to just avoid spicy rape comics or whatnot, now you have to show your characters signing contracts or otherwise turning to the "camera" and going "I consent to the following actions."

It's weird alien zoomer ideals of what sexuality and human interaction is, brought to you by a generation of terminally online freaks who have no idea how to human becuase if they interact wrong with a solid 4/10 woman when she's expecting a solid 9/10 or better to be the only ones allowed to interact with her their lives are de-facto over. Or are normal women who have been convinced this is how humans do sex by those 4/10 women wormtounging them.