The great ‘dematuring’ of videogames continues with reports that Valve are now forbidding “post-launch NSFW content” for games on Steam, even those that are already “adult-only”. That’s according to Crimson Delight Games, the developers of fantasy RPG Tales of Legendary Lust: Aphrodisia. They launched it on September 15th with adult content warnings, after submitting it to Valve’s review process in August, and had planned to add sexy scenes through updates while working on a big DLC expansion for 2026.
These updates are not going to happen anymore, apparently because everybody’s favourite PG-rated cartoon villains, global payment networks, are putting pressure on Valve. Instead, the updates will need to be submitted as proper official DLC so that Valve can give them a formal review.
This will likely mean more work for the devs and potentially, release delays, compared to the relative ease of publishing an update or patch – as Valve explain in their FAQ, “Steam makes it easy to patch your game or add content at any time that you need to in order to best serve your audience on your schedule”.
“We were told all new adult content for our game has to go through DLC, presumably so it can be reviewed and approved,” the developers wrote in response to a Reddit post about the situation this week. We don’t know the inner workings of Valve / Steam, but we’re in a couple of NSFW dev communities and these new rules weren’t in place before the Collective Shout uproar and subsequent payment processors’ censorship.”
If you’re new to Collective Shout, they’re an Australian activist group who campaign against “the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture”, and are also affiliated with conservative groups who campaign against sex work and pornography at large.
Back in July, Collective Shout claimed credit for stampeding Mastercard, Visa and other payment processing companies and networks into forbidding the transaction of a vast number of sexually themed or otherwise “NSFW” adult games on Steam and Itch, including a lot of games from queer developers. Collective Shout have yet to properly explain which individual games they consider unfit for sale and why.
Steam and Itch have now changed their policies to give the payment networks some control over what counts as acceptable “adult” material. They have also delisted or removed a lot of games, with Itch electing to seek out new payment partners while revising their catalogue. Valve are reportedly denying the release of “mature” games under Steam early access, possibly because (to echo Crimson Delight’s point above) the platform holder needs to be able to review the finished work before approving it for sale. I say ‘reportedly’ and ‘possibly’ because Valve still haven’t made a formal comment on these recent events. I’ll ask them again now.
In the Reddit thread about the rejected NSFW updates, Crimson Delight have only good things to say about Valve’s handling of the situation. “I have to say the reviewer was kind and forthcoming, we didn’t feel threatened or bullied in any way, and we got the feeling they were trying to do their best to help devs navigate the process,” developer Frenzin writes. “But the fact of the matter is that Valve has payment processors breathing down their neck, and the rules keep getting stricter as time goes on.”
“Valve isn’t the problem here,” Frenzin continues. “The big credit card companies are. If anything, Valve has stood up to them and pushed back. They could’ve simply nuked the 18+ section of Steam, but they didn’t, they stuck up for developers. Obviously adult games make Valve money, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of Steam’s catalogue. Silksong itself probably earned Valve more than most NSFW titles put together.
“Given that we’re erogame devs, we’re against any sort of censorship (as long as the content isn’t sexualizing minors or nonconsensual in any way),” the developer comments. “But it’s important to understand where the real problem lies, and it’s not with Valve.”
My very Lukewarm Take regarding the on-going NSFW/mature game crackdown is that people should be allowed to get their rocks off to whatever responsibly created fictitious media they choose in the absence of evidence that they are doing harm, and large finance corporations with no actual mandate to serve the public interest shouldn’t play the part of moral sentinel.
I’d flesh that argument out with reference to Tales of Legendary Lust, but my efforts are hindered by the UK’s new Online Safety Act, which requires me to verify my age to visit the game’s Steam page and visit the developer’s subreddit (thanks to Automaton for being the messenger). I don’t have a credit card for Steam verification, and Reddit’s camera age verification widget seems to think that my age defies categorisation. Which, you know, fair dos. You can find a SFW version of the game on Itch, though.