Steam cracks down on some sex games to appease payment processors
1 min read
Summary
Valve’s Steam has become notorious over the years for allowing all kinds of games on to the platform, however, it looks like payment processors are starting to have more of an say on what games are allowed.
Valve recently updated its rules regarding what can and can’t be on Steam, notably adding a prohibition on adult-only content, albeit vaguely defined.
This has led to dozens of games being removed from the platform, notably referencing incest and including sex games with “slave” or “prison” themes.
Payment processors such as Visa, PayPal and others have increasingly been flexing their legal muscles over immoral and illegal content, notably pausing payments for Pornhub’s ads recently, as well as prohibiting payments to file sharing and VPN sites over copyright violations.
This growing trend means that platforms like Steam will increasingly become more conservative in the products they allow, with payment platforms themselves acting as de facto content regulators.
