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”

---

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)

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Imagine still buying games. Piracy is the only option.

 

[Black Man Underwear]

They are outright dictating what is and what is not allowed to be sold, which influences what is made. Good or bad, this is where a goverment set in powr by the people belongs. Not a retarded fucking glorified debt collector

I fucking lose it when people say shit like "nooo you can't heckin regulate them, let the free market decide". My brother in Christ there is no free market.

Our entire economy is structured to suck wealth from the bottom. We subsidize the rest of the entire planet and that's not socialism, but telling PayPal they can't unironically actually literally direct the economy as a shadow government, and telling banks not to rob private citizens at gunpoint is somehow socialism?

 

[M3453dst324]

You have to go into several menus to activate NSFW showing up on the store page so you have likely done this to yourself.

No I have clicked zero options for filtering the store page and I get porn games showing up. Its most likely the default if steam knows you are an adult.
This is the "You only get gay porn ads cuz you watch gay porn " argument pretending that filters and algorithms are perfect.

 

[Jace on ice]

I feel like processors banning cryptocurrency is next, the banks really really really hate crypto.

 

[Black Man Underwear]

No I have clicked zero options for filtering the store page and I get porn games showing up. Its most likely the default if steam knows you are an adult.
This is the "You only get gay porn ads cuz you watch gay porn " argument pretending that filters and algorithms are perfect.

Pornhub admitted they put tranny girlcock content on the front page by default to push fag ideology.

They did it to create an artificial trend of straight men being attracted to trannies. I never see it mentioned casually so it's safe to say it failed.

Anyone who uses that argument is either ragebaiting or fucking retarded.

 

[Vaclav]

I understand where you're coming from and generally agree with you, but consider the fact that the more payment processors restrict content the less money they make. Drawing a line at pornographic content depicting incest etc. doesn't necessarily mean they'll go full race-swapped Snape and push some woke agenda. Their desire for shekels will always take priority.

They stopped caring about making money a long time ago. They are guaranteed to make money, they can't not make money. The priority of the financial system over the last 10+ years has clearly been projects of social engineering. Blackrock has steered Western businesses toward creating a constant stream of demoralization propaganda through debt financing. This has not been good for any business and Hollywood is now on the brink of ruin over this propaganda campaign. It doesn't matter, they want to crush people's spirits no matter how many puppets they have to burn to do it.

Any mechanism in place to censor pornography will also be used to censor "hate speech", and "hate speech" is a subjective term that can be slapped on anything anyone influential takes objection to; censorship is an incredibly slippery slope. "We don't like this content so nobody else is allowed to have it" is the exact same mindset that's led to Josh having to deal with so much bullshit.

Exactly. Before Gamergate, roughly, websites had terms of service that banned "hate speech" according to a common sense definition. You couldn't go around heiling Hitler on Facebook and no one took much issue. Then those rules rapidly shifted to the point where you would be banned for questioning any detail of the globohomo utopia, or just for having too assertive or obstinate a personality.

 

[Fresh Meat]

I don't give a fuck about tranny incest porn games. What I care about is the fact that payment processors basically serve as content moderators now. A bit like those Tier 1 ISPs that raped us during DKF (Cogent, Hurricane Electric). Crypto is the future basically.
Unrelated, I get so pissed when people look at a person who has crypto wallets in their bio or something and instantly write them off as "cryptobros". Apparently it's bad to have full control over one's own money? The jewish trickery software has installed itself onto the brains of these retards

 

[Pentex]

The Banking Clan rules all.

Example #(Whatever, I don't like this shit, it's not funny, I'm tired of it, I just wanted to play my vidya in peace).

 

[George Lucas]

"I'll care about the carbon monoxide build-up in this coal mine when something bigger than a bird dies down here."

View attachment 7651517

The film industry survived the Hayes Code.

 

[COME ON OUT YOU RAPIST]

I feel like processors banning cryptocurrency is next, the banks really really really hate crypto.

That would be difficult since the US government has a stash of BTC. Crypto was legitimized a while ago which is why it's kept climbing.

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

This is why banks should be nationalised and bankers should face the death penalty if they mis manage the money of the people. No, I'm not a commie, and yes, Everystein Singleberg Timeowitz can suck my cock.

 

[God of Nothing]

I feel like processors banning cryptocurrency is next, the banks really really really hate crypto.

Fucking kikes keep printing toilet paper and bitch about people wanting something better.

 

[Looney Troons]

What a shame. The titles of the games brought me legitimate chuckles. Here are some of my favorites that I’ve collected:

 

[Hiphopopotamus]

When PornHub had literal child porn and rape videos, payment processors didn't care until it started becoming national headlines.
Steam has degenerate (but legal) porn games? No you have to remove them NOW!

 

[Terfmaster9000]

Fuck you for making me agree with banks. This is a good thing.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

This is one of those topics that, in 5 pages, is probably going to get completely side tracked into arguing about the content that was removed, instead of the dangerous precedent it's setting up.

Rest in peace to all the shitty renpy slop that only existed to be gag gifts and not much else. someone tell Valens all his favorite games just got nuked, I'm sure that'll make for a dogshit substack article.

 

[Harambe]

it's not censorship if I agree with it

even a malicious and wicked clock is right twice a day.

and if they came for the lolicons and incest lovers, and no one says anything because they aren't a lolicon or incest lover, that's fine.
I'll worry about the next erosion of freedom, unless it's furries or some other gross shit I don't want to think about. I hope the rape games and the disgusting VNs all burn in hell.

I am tolerant of perverts generally. Gays, BDSM, weird shit, I don't care too much, perverts self-segregate and if they're actually harmless there won't be some tail-end of abuse everyone ends up hearing about. I don't think erotic games are evil, but can these perverts really not get off to cartoons of naked adults without being into rape, animals, animal-human monsters, incest, or kids? They should not be allowed to form communities and businesses around being gross, malicious, and retarded. That's how niggers live.

"It's just a cartoon, it's unrealistic, nobody got hurt"--I'm not objecting to the cartoon, or even a premise of harm, I am objecting to the person who made it and the person who uses it, I want them out of society, the cartoon is technically 'harmless,' but harm is not hte standard I employ, tolerating the user and creator is all downside risk, and it's degrading to all people's dignity to tolerate them

Valve is in all likelihood, based on its tolerance of this shit, just like Canonical--run through with pedophiles and rapists the way wagyu beef is marbled with fat. Professions that encourage you to be pasty, lazy, detached from reality, and antisocial should have extreme and extraordinary vetting processes to ensure that persons with certain sexual tendencies are identified and then exiled from society to live with the abbos or those disgusting cannibal pajeets if summary execution is off the table.

it's gross and bad and the people who want it and consume it are gross and wrong and deserve no rights

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

What a shame. The titles of the games brought me legitimate chuckles. Here are some of my favorites that I’ve collected:

View attachment 7651655View attachment 7651656View attachment 7651659

Jews are just mad they can't have sex with Hitler.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Fuck you for making me agree with banks. This is a good thing.

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.

Nah, it's shit.

 

[Black Man Underwear]

When PornHub had literal child porn and rape videos, payment processors didn't care until it started becoming national headlines.
Steam has degenerate (but legal) porn games? No you have to remove them NOW!

Completely accurate.

Google is well known to index actual child porn. Everyone knows the "don't Google this" phrases. They conduct monetary transactions constantly and are never held to account.

Indian Pornhub allows rape videos, actual rape videos, and this is so well known rape victims' names trend on the site when their story hits the news. They make millions.

On the flip side, Sex With Hitler is a priority target. As long as it exists George Soros will never rest easy.