Valve, the parent company of digital game distributor Steam, reportedly updated its Early Access policy to no longer accept adult-oriented titles. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), one adult game developer shared that their application for Steam Early Access was rejected. The user attached screenshots showing correspondence from Steam following their failed review.
“According to steam, early access is no longer an option for games with ‘mature themes,’” the X post reads. “The culling of adult games continues.” Following their Early Access rejection, Steam told the developer that “[their] app has failed our review because we’re unable to support the Early Access model of development for a game with mature themes. Please resubmit when your app is ready to launch without Early Access.”
Other adult games studios are sharing similar responses they’ve received from Steam. In the replies to a related post on BlueSky, other mature games studios shared similar responses. Blue Fairy Media Games confirmed that “[their] title was hit by this as well after multiple weeks of back and forth in the review process with absolutely no mention of this policy prior.”
Valve has not officially confirmed any policy changes, but this wouldn’t be the first time that Steam faced scrutiny for anti-NSFW-content practices. In July, Australian activist group Collective Shout penned open letters to payment processors, like Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal, urging the brands to stifle mature games purchases. Later that month, Steam joined independent games hub itch.io in “dexindexing” — or obscuring results from users’ web searches — explicit titles.
The Valve-owned platform last updated its Rules and Guidelines in July. However, its vague verbiage regarding explicit content seems to cause even more problems and confusion for publishers and developers. Steam shares its guidelines within its Onboarding documentation, given to teams or individuals applying for a spot in the platform’s storefront. “Adult” content is only referenced twice in its Rules and Guidelines subsection. While the first mention specifically cites improperly labeled mature games, the second doesn’t specify much of anything. “Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers,” the last list item reads. “In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.”
“In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.”
Steam’s nebulous rules not only complicate developers’ ability to ship games, but they give the platform a kind of upper hand, one that may allow it to invoke its fifteenth rule in more abstract or far-reaching ways moving forward. When “adult only” means nothing, it could mean anything, and that’s cause for concern when free expression is on the line.
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