those adult games could be completely removed from Steam, thanks to pressure from credit card companies and a small activist group from Australia.
Recently, Steam announced new rules that could stop certain adult games from being added to the store—and could even remove some games that are already there. The company said it would no longer allow content that might break the rules of payment processors like Visa and Mastercard, or internet providers. They specifically mentioned “certain kinds of adult-only content,” though they didn’t say exactly what that means. This unclear wording is worrying for fans of genres like visual novels and dating sims, which often include adult themes.
Sadly, this type of thing isn’t new. Credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard have long made it hard for websites to sell adult content. Even though it makes them a lot of money, they often block anything related to sex. But what’s strange here is that a group called Collective Shout may be behind the push.
Collective Shout is an Australian group that campaigns against sexual content in media—even if it’s clearly meant for adults and involves only fictional characters. They claim to have pressured payment companies into acting by sending over 1,000 emails from concerned individuals. While that may sound like a lot, it’s tiny compared to Steam’s 132 million monthly users.
The group is upset about around 500 games on Steam, which is less than 0.5% of the platform’s 115,000 titles. Still, their actions seem to have caused Steam to consider wide-reaching changes that could affect many more games.
It’s unclear how far Steam will go with these new rules. But if you enjoy games with adult themes, you may soon need to find them somewhere else.
