Valve gets pressured by payment processors with a new rule for game devs and various adult games removed

This is really concerning. Not because of these "games" but what it indicates. The removal means there is someone somewhere at Visa/MasterCard/PayPal whose job is to go through the stream catalog and decide on which games are "okay" and which games are "not okay"


Last edited by kellerkindt on 16 Jul 2025 at 11:48 am UTC

My take: If US payment processors get a say what is and isn't allowed on Steam, so should every government in whose jurisdiction Steam sells any games. Otherwise, they should just stay the fuck out of it.

Well they already do. Not globally, but you couldn't buy most of the porn-games in Germany or games that are "[indexed](https://www.mobygames.com/group/4362/bpjs-bpjm-indexed-games/)" like Dying Light for example.


edit: strange that Markdown works in the preview but not in the post.


Last edited by lod on 16 Jul 2025 at 12:01 pm UTC

The issue of low effort games in Steam is a different topic and I get it. But I remember the times when releasing games on Steam was pretty difficult and releasing sexual games was impossible. I remember Steam Greenlight and how it pretty much failed to fix anything.

Unfortunately for now the only reasonable options are to allow everything or allow nothing and we are currently in the "allow everything" phase. That means that there are thousands of games released every year and most of them are worthless.

Buy who gets to chose which games are worth it? I don't trust Steam to make that choice for me so I prefer the current situation, even if that means that 3 or 4 times a year I have to expend an afternoon waddling through thousands of shitty games to find some hidden gems.

Even so, Valve is always looking for ways to improve the situation. Years ago we got the curators system, which is an actual nice improvement. There are steam groups for different kinds of games. There are hundreds of different filters in the store to help you find some actually good games.
You can also check the top releases every month. You can check the top games every year. You can check popular wishlist games. You have the "deep dive" and "interactive recommender" that came out of the Steam labs some years ago.

Censorship is not the solution to low quality games. We live surrounded by too much information, what we need are tools to simplify getting what we actually want and Valve has been providing them in spades (because their earnings depends on it, mind you). No other store has as many ways to discover games as Steam does.

It's kind of ironic don't you think?

Valve's spent so much time(and money) on the likes of Proton etc- specifically so they can be free from the whims of a relied on third party platform(read M$). Yet here we are, a relied on third party platform dictating the very essence of valves commercial model- choosing what they can and cannot sell.

Frankly, the fact that Muramasa and other visual novels weren't allowed on Steam and some of this junk was had always confused me.

Mastercard and Visa already came for Japanese visual novels. DLsite got hit a few months ago; all the standard payment processors no longer work.

Extremely theoretical, borderline impossible, silver-lining: Steam/Valve is big enough to potentially figure out a different solution to payment than the existing censoring payment providers.

Now, I don't see this happening as it's a huge undertaking and would probably require launching a sub-company for that specific purpose, but I would really, really like to see someone of Valve's capability (and morals) come along and push PayPal out of their spot and just be a payment processor.

The idea that "payment processors" get to tell people what is okay and not okay to spend their "own" money on.... I'm just glad I researched about future alternatives for when SHTF and now I feel prepared for whenever this evolves further (namely CBDCs) .

Since the days of WikiLeaks, we know that by using certain payment methods, we can only spend our money if we're allowed to. Yet everyone continues to use these methods. Steam should authorize payments in stablecoins

Commercial entities should not be allowed to dictate these things. It's not their business where people spend their money on.

And you don't see these games on Steam because you have to actively switch it on in your settings.

So who am I to determine for others what should or shouldn't be on Steam.

Time for some European payment provider alternatives to those close-minded murricans.

The solution I'd like to see implemented: stop using effin' PayPal.

On a less dreamy note: I'd be okay with it if these games were still available but you couldn't pay for them using PayPal or whoever's responsible for it. Blame who's to blame, charge your Steam Wallet via other means, pay that way.

There are a few videos on Youtube where the video avoids naming its primary context to avoid automatic and contextless bot censorship.

A few? You mean A LOT of videos where creators avoid to mention the main topic because the Youtube algorithm is an snowflake.

I agree that this kind of games should be in the appropiate platform, like Pornhub and not on a general gaming platform like Steam...But to remove or allow XXX games on Steam must be a Valve's decision, not the payment processors'

I remember when Visa tried to block payments in Only Fans, but knowing how much money that platform moves, they backed down.

Time for some European payment provider alternatives to those close-minded murricans.

The solution isn't moving the goalposts and choosing to be ruled by a different region in place of another (see user Iod's comment above about similar game censorship in Germany). This only delays the problem.

The proper solution, no matter how improbable, is for Valve to take a page of their own book of embracing open source solutions, that - by design - cannot be under the influence of any asshat authority, and apply that in their payment methods.

And I don't think stablecoins is the answer here either, those can be controlled and regulated too as far as I'm aware (do correct me if I'm wrong here). I don't want to sound like those cryptobros plugging some shitcoins so I'm choosing to end this here.

It's bad in terms of payment-processors having a say for curation may be a slippery slope (albeit, an unlikely one; they like money lol)

It's good in terms of trash being tossed out.

Thinking about this a little more, I think a better solution would be to mark certain games as not being purchasable through specific payment providers. Let the games stay on Steam, but when you go to check out, the user could be told that their currently selected payment provider does not allow the purchase of this game, and let them pick a different one. Make it obvious who's at fault here.

Of course, this could also be an issue on the other side, when developers are receiving their money, but surely, they should also be allowed to pick a different provider?

It's already bad enough that for some games you need to get the 18+ patches from the developer/publisher via their websites instead of just on Steam. Even if the earlier games in a series had the 18+ patches on Steam already. Like the Nekopara series for instance. The older games have the 18+ patches on Steam, but not 4 and After. It's stupid that all the shovelware hentai slop can get released, but actual developers have to host their 18+ patches elsewhere.

However this sorta forced removal shit on the other hand is bullshit and evil corporatist garbage.

Also, any of the left/progressive peeps here find it funny that the Reagan quoting petite bourgeois redneck is nowhere to be found in the comments for this article? I'm sure that if payment processors got in the way of his business, it'd be a completely different story. But then again, even the Trump supporters who get screwed by that asshole Cheeto's bullshit polices still support him. So who knows? lol

I won't miss any of the newly censored games, but I have an extreme problem with corporations forcing their morals and beliefs on us. Regulation isn't their job, it's the government's. A constitution banning censorship isn't worth the paper it's written on, if we tolerate corporations to do it instead.

Who can say for sure that the prudish suits at Visa/Mastercard/PayPal won't decide tomorrow morning that D&D is satanic after all, and demand taking down Baldur's Gate 3?

This has to stop somewhere. I didn't elect the CEO of Visa or Mastercard to decide what kind of content I can see or buy. Personally, I would love to see Visa and Mastercard socialized and their current workforce being DOGE-ed. The thought of having 2-3 corporations around that can nuke any company anywhere on Earth, at any time they please, just by refusing to do business with them, is more than a bit chilling.

But unfortunately I can't see the Land of the Free (Enterprise) to do anything about it. So, looking at the recent success of the Stop Killing Games petition, someone in the EU needs to set up a petition asking for a law that would compel gatekeeping businesses to do business with ANYONE as long as it's legal. That would solve the problem, too. But I unfortunately don't live there.

A bit off-topic:

PayPal also tried to infantilize consumers of e-cigarettes in Germany.
I know some cases where online stores were admonished by PayPal.
So they said: "Why do you think we are dependent on you? We offer enough other payment methods. So who cares?"
Long story short: You still can pay everywhere with PayPal for your e-cigarettes

To make it clear, I am no more in support of censorship than anyone else on this site.

But no one has addressed the elephant in the room here. Look over the list of the games being banned. The topic of these games is incest. Now, I can't speak to European regulations -- nor can I speak to Japanese ones either -- but here in North America, incest is illegal.

Could it be just as simple that the payment processors are just protecting themselves, should one of the federal governments choose to see their accepting payments for material of this nature as financially supporting illegal activities?

Is it appropriate for these corporations to be enforcing morality? No -- but do you really think that any of the North American governments are going to step in and slap their wrists for doing so? The governments have been allowing the corporations to interfere in the area of regulation more and more these days. I highly doubt they'll do even so much as peep about the matter.

Personally, I like the suggestion from @Cybolic on how Valve should handle the matter.

To make it clear, I am no more in support of censorship than anyone else on this site.

But no one has addressed the elephant in the room here. Look over the list of the games being banned. The topic of these games is incest. Now, I can't speak to European regulations -- nor can I speak to Japanese ones either -- but here in North America, incest is illegal.

Could it be just as simple that the payment processors are just protecting themselves, should one of the federal governments choose to see their accepting payments for material of this nature as financially supporting illegal activities?

Is it appropriate for these corporations to be enforcing morality? No -- but do you really think that any of the North American governments are going to step in and slap their wrists for doing so? The governments have been allowing the corporations to interfere in the area of regulation more and more these days. I highly doubt they'll do even so much as peep about the matter.

Personally, I like the suggestion from @Cybolic on how Valve should handle the matter.

Performing actual incest is illegal, media showing (pretended) incest is not. This is not at all about incest, this is 100% about sex. I have personally been on the negotiation table to get access to various card payment providers and they all have stipulations that they will not support your business if you deal in weapons, drugs or porn. Steam/Valve have zero leverage here except to create their own payment platform (which is hairy and would require to seek bank licensing in all countries so also costly and a regulatory hell).

What we need are governmental regulation stipulating that payment providers cannot dictate what you sell as long as you are not breaking any laws.