Current Events > Steam bends to payment processors on porn games

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.404media.co/steam-bends-to-payment-processors-on-porn-games/

Steam, the dominant digital storefront for PC games operated by Valve, updated its guidelines to forbid certain kinds of adult content and blamed restrictions from payment processors and financial institutions. The update was initially spotted by Steam.DB, a platform that tracks and publishes data about Steam, and reported by the Japanese gaming site Gamespark.

The update is yet another signal that payment processors are lately becoming more vigilant about what online platforms that host adult content theyll provide services to and another clear sign that they are currently the ultimate arbiter of what kind of content can be made easily available online, or not.

Steams policy change appears under the onboarding portion of its Seamworks documentation for developers and publishers. The 15th item on a list of what you shouldnt publish on Steam now reads: Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steams payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.

Its not clear when exactly Valve updated this list, but an archive of this page from April shows that it only had 14 items then. Other items that were already on the list included nude or sexually explicit images of real people and adult content that isnt appropriately labeled and age-gated, but Valve did not previously mention payment processors specifically.

Valve did not immediately respond to a request for comment and questions about where developers might find more details about payment processors rules and standards.

Steam.DB, which also tracks when games are added or removed from Steam, noted many adult games have been removed from Steam in the last 24 hours. Sex games, many of which are of very low quality and sometimes include very extreme content, have been common on Steam for years. In April, I wrote about a rape and incest game called No Mercy which the developers eventually voluntarily removed from Steam after pressure from users, media, and lawmakers in the UK. The majority of games I saw that were removed from Steam recently revolve around similar themes, but we dont know if they were removed by the developers or Valve, and if they were removed by Valve because of the recent policy change. Games are removed from Steam every day for a variety of reasons, including expired licensing deals or developers no longer wanting to support a game.

However, Steams policy change comes at a time that weve seen increased pressure from payment processors around adult content.

This is why I pay in cash

What should you do with yourself if you're ashamed of what turns you on?

Dang, all the Hitler sex games finally got them.

ellis123 posted...

Dang, all the Hitler sex games finally got them.

Nope. "Sex With Hitler", "Sex With Hitler 2", "Sex With Hitler 3D", etc., are all still listed on SteamDB and all still for sale. I guess having Hitler in your game is a surefire way for it to be safe from these rules.

Calwings posted...

Nope. "Sex With Hitler", "Sex With Hitler 2", "Sex With Hitler 3D", etc., are all still listed on SteamDB and all still for sale. I guess having Hitler in your game is a surefire way for it to be safe from these rules.

Dang, all the Hitler sex games weren't enough to get them.

Pretty ridiculous, honestly.
I guess this means that there will just be an uncensored patch for most of those games from here on out.

They pretty much want to scrub any type of adult content from the web.

All this and they still haven't removed the farm game that has you sleep with literal children. What the fuck, Valve.

I wonder if the patch gimmick is enough to save games? Where they upload an all ages version to steam but you download a patch to put the adult stuff back in.

And nothing of value was lost.

Bass posted...

I wonder if the patch gimmick is enough to save games? Where they upload an all ages version to steam but you download a patch to put the adult stuff back in.

I'd love to see how they change the absolute flood of "Family Incest Mommy Seduction BDSM" and "Hentai Furry Puzzle Dom Dungeon Adventure" slop into all ages versions.

Why are payment processors so pissy about porn? Such a weird thing

Board_hunter567 posted...

I'd love to see how they change the absolute flood of "Family Incest Mommy Seduction BDSM" and "Hentai Furry Puzzle Dom Dungeon" slop into all ages versions.

Yeah, that sounds like a difficult undertaking for games like that, lmao.

MC_BatCommander posted...

Why are payment processors so pissy about porn? Such a weird thing

Think of the chill der in

Phanir posted...

All this and they still haven't removed the farm game that has you sleep with literal children. What the fuck, Valve.

I'm not trying to end up on a list but you're not being edgy about Stardew Valley are you?

I forgot to buy any gooner games from the summer sale, and now I have to buy them full price to make sure I get them before they're taken down.

Fuck all the no horny rules. >_>

MC_BatCommander posted...

Why are payment processors so pissy about porn? Such a weird thing

There's a history of massive amounts of chargebacks on adult content. Often, if people get caught with something on their statement that they don't want their family/whoever to know about, they'll claim it's fraud and do a chargeback. So, to avoid this, a lot of payment processors just no longer want to deal with adult content anymore.

MC_BatCommander posted...

Why are payment processors so pissy about porn? Such a weird thing

I imagine part of it has to do with compliance to regional laws. If some kid in Texas uses their mom's credit card to buy the highest quality boobs Poser can provide then Visa might be considered complicit in distribution of porn to a minor, making them a very lucrative target.

HashtagSEP posted...

And nothing of value was lost.

Sure, they werent games of high value, but the fact that payment processors are literally saying you cant use your money on certain video games is insanity

Yazarogi posted...

I'm not trying to end up on a list but you're not being edgy about Stardew Valley are you?

Never, I love Stardew Valley.

The game I'm referencing uses the "go to our site for the H-patch" excuse to continue existing, so a developer's post on the community hub directly links to fictional CP.

I don't get why payment processors are being so weird about porn. Something tells me they aren't nearly as vigilant with anything else.

HashtagSEP posted...

There's a history of massive amounts of chargebacks on adult content. Often, if people get caught with something on their statement that they don't want their family/whoever to know about, they'll claim it's fraud and do a chargeback. So, to avoid this, a lot of payment processors just no longer want to deal with adult content anymore.

I didn't think of it that way but at least that sounds more objective and practically-minded, not simply "we don't want our institution associated with such THINGS and you should be thanking us for keeping the world more wholesome by ensuring none of those degenerates can use our services to pay for their filthy erotica and ensuring those contributing to the creation of it find a better way to make money."

Solid_Sonic posted...

I didn't think of it that way but at least that sounds more objective and practically-minded, not simply "we don't want our institution associated with such THINGS and you should be thanking us for keeping the world more wholesome by ensuring none of those degenerates can use our services to pay for their filthy erotica and ensuring those contributing to the creation of it find a better way to make money."

That's usually how it works. There tends to be a very rational reason for things that CE gets bent out of shape over when it comes to things like this.

Solid_Sonic posted...

I didn't think of it that way but at least that sounds more objective and practically-minded, not simply "we don't want our institution associated with such THINGS and you should be thanking us for keeping the world more wholesome by ensuring none of those degenerates can use our services to pay for their filthy erotica and ensuring those contributing to the creation of it find a better way to make money."

Yeah, it has nothing to do with morality. There's just an extremely high rate of chargebacks on adult content compared to anything else, so they just don't want the headache.

Solid_Sonic posted...

I didn't think of it that way but at least that sounds more objective and practically-minded, not simply "we don't want our institution associated with such THINGS and you should be thanking us for keeping the world more wholesome by ensuring none of those degenerates can use our services to pay for their filthy erotica and ensuring those contributing to the creation of it find a better way to make money."

They're probably just as annoyed as anyone that they can't make money off of it since there's clearly money to be made, so it's pretty safe to assume something is forcing their hands.

Phanir posted...

Never, I love Stardew Valley.

The game I'm referencing uses the "go to our site for the H-patch" excuse to continue existing, so a developer's post on the community hub directly links to fictional CP.

You can make a "fuck kids" mod for any game. It's not fair to block games based on what external content is added in.

Tyranthraxus posted...

You can make a "fuck kids" mod for any game. It's not fair to block games based on what external content is added in.

You're not wrong, but how often do you see this as a selling point from the developer?

HashtagSEP posted...

Yeah, it has nothing to do with morality.

Not necessarily morality but I assumed it came from a position of corporate image (I guess my earlier post didn't properly convey what I actually meant to project, since I did make it sound as if it was about morality). By cutting off the use of their payment services to pay for things that are "unwholesome" they can wash their hands of it and look as if they scrutinize the uses of their services.

Basically it's in the interest of being seen by shareholders as having standards.

Solid_Sonic posted...

Not necessarily morality but I assumed it came from a position of corporate image. By cutting off the use of their payment services to pay for things that are "unwholesome" they can wash their hands of it and look as if they scrutinize how their payment services are used.

Basically it's in the interest of being seen by shareholders as having standards.

Payment processors don't care about anything but money, that's literally their business. Chargebacks not only cause them to get less money, but it becomes a hassle for all involved.

Basically, while it's easy to assume image can come into play, never rule out just pure greed as motivation.

Solid_Sonic posted...

Basically it's in the interest of being seen by shareholders as having standards.

Valve doesn't have shareholders.

@HashtagSEP already got the right of it.

Though it is concerning for foreign payment processors that might want to ban anything LGBTQ in content. Large chunks of the world could have access to this material cut off like China.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Valve doesn't have shareholders.

@HashtagSEP already got the right of it.

Though it is concerning for foreign payment processors that might want to ban anything LGBTQ in content. Large chunks of the world could have access to this material cut off like China.

The shareholders was referring to the payment processors, not Valve.

suchiuomizu posted...

The shareholders was referring to the payment processors, not Valve.

Oh I don't think any shareholders are worried about a company's legitimacy for accepting payments for adult material. A payment processor with an extremely high rate of charge backs on the other hand does affect legitimacy.

suchiuomizu posted...

The shareholders was referring to the payment processors, not Valve.

Shareholders absolutely wouldn't be impacted at all in a "shareholder interest" way because Steam had porn games. They would say that they had a big client in the form of Valve and literally no one involved would even slightly act like the existence of porn games was a thing.

Like I would think it's not impossible if...say...Square closed the account of a CBD shop because using their services to take payments for "drug paraphernalia" is against their terms of use, even though the store isn't doing anything wrong or illegal in their own right (if people are buying their pipes to do crystal that's something that happens outside their door, they didn't give any explicit use-cases for the products they stock).

Something like that.

Gooning is occupying a weird liminal space where gooners lack enough shame to avoid making online spaces weird, but have just enough shame to make payment people go "you're making it hard to pay for goon material so we're making the choice for you"

Payment processors are getting tired of seeing "Fuck witches 20" and "Hentai girls volume 5" on their records lol. They be sayin enough is enough!

Question. If it's not about morality, then why are only "certain kinds" of adult content restricted? They're still allowing porn games on there.

Recently a certain site that I'm not sure I'm allowed to name (similar to OF but not OF) had to ban a bunch of very specific types of porn because of payment processors. Catgirls were specifically mentioned by name among the list. I seriously doubt catgirl porn has a significantly higher chargeback rate than other kinds of porn.

pokedude900 posted...

Question. If it's not about morality, then why are only "certain kinds" of adult content restricted? They're still allowing porn games on there.

This is largely part of an anti-furry porn push by MasterCard.

CE in 2024: Ha, the concept of freedom of speech doesn't protect your comments from deletion by the owner of the website, neener neener lol u

Tyranthraxus posted...

This is largely part of an anti-furry porn push by MasterCard.

Becauuuuuuse...? That did kind of shift the issue back to "we don't like it" less so "it's causing us problems."

pokedude900 posted...

Question. If it's not about morality, then why are only "certain kinds" of adult content restricted? They're still allowing porn games on there.

Likely due to laws regarding depictions of incest and bestiality. I guarantee you that the hundreds of incest games banned will be allowed if they add "step" to the titles.

Also assuming it is Visa and MasterCard trying to protect their business model by restricting payments to a category that tends to result in chargebacks isn't that understandable? It sucks but you can't really get angry at that. Too many people paying for things in that way abused it when they came under fire in their lives for their interests and doing so disrupted their business.

You could argue it's a policy problem that they're not addressing in a right or just way by cutting off people who use their services to pay for things without abusing the system but they had to respond somehow and they need to reduce their administrative headaches.

This sounds like bootlicking but I find it's easier to look at it from the original "corporate image" perspective because that means they're being unreasonable in the name of shallow corporate virtues. If this is a bad thing then it makes more sense to call it a bad thing for a reason that is totally being unfair and self-interested rather than "disappointing but understandable".

Solid_Sonic posted...

Becauuuuuuse...? That did kind of shift the issue back to "we don't like it" less so "it's causing us problems."

The payment processors make rules for all their clients. They aren't giving valve a special exception because things are different there. Fraud is bad enough when you get caught paying for regular porn. Furry shit probably gets refunded even more. Not on steam per se, just in general.

I was just talking to some adult game devs about this and it looks like they're going after predominantly stuff that is "in your face" like Furry Hitler. After cleaning out a bunch of shovelware to satisfy the payment processors things will go back to normal.

Board_hunter567 posted...

Likely due to laws regarding depictions of incest and bestiality. I guarantee you that the hundreds of incest games banned will be allowed if they add "step" to the titles.

Also, most of this shit is made with AI now so I bet people won't know how to feel.

Dude. They're works of fiction. If the content was illegal, they wouldn't be on the storefront in the first place. Payment processors wouldn't have to have these policies in the first place.

Japan went through this a couple years ago. Now it's America's turn

Tyranthraxus posted...

Furry shit probably gets refunded even more. Not on steam per se, just in general.

Citation needed.

MC_BatCommander posted...

Why are payment processors so pissy about porn? Such a weird thing

Brand safety. Though why pay processors care about brand image when their whole gimmick is to be as invisible as possible so that nobody is quite aware of the ridiculous amount of cash they make just skimming off the top of every purchase ever made is beyond me.

If these laws against "depictions of CP and incest" were anywhere near as solid as people on the Internet claim they are, GRRM would have been imprisoned for Game of Thrones. The book, not the show.

Tyranthraxus posted...

If these laws against "depictions of CP and incest" were anywhere near as solid as people on the Internet claim they are, GRRM would have been imprisoned for Game of Thrones. The book, not the show.

True. Isnt the barbarian queen character like 14 in the book? They had to age her up for the show