Steam rules updated to prohibit content that violates rules set forth by payment processors and banks – AUTOMATON WEST
Steam rules updated to prohibit content that violates rules set forth by payment processors and banks – AUTOMATON WEST
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>According to[ SteamDB](https://steamdb.info/history/events/), a large number of games has been removed from the platform in the past 16 hours. Judging rom the list, it appears “sex simulator” type games with keywords such as “incest” and “slavery” make up the majority. There are some confusing cases like the removal of the Ace Attorney-inspired investigation game Trails of Innocence, although this could be a coincidental deletion.
Don’t let these stupid banks know about anime if that’s the case. The isekai genre wouldn’t survive lol
Great, conservative bank deciding how you spend the remaining of your money they didn’t taxed in bullshit fee. Are you praising the lord with your expense?
My big question is, why tf are banks dictating what we purchase? I get if it’s about money laundering or trafficking but if laws allow such games then there shouldn’t be anything to talk about here.
Well this directly violates the first amendment. Since when do banks get to decide what games are available to the public? If this is real this is fucked up. Banks shouldn’t be getting any say in anything like this.
This is very bad, payment processors shouldn’t care about what games you’re buying. Allowing them to curate literally everything on the largest and most favored store on the market will only lead to dead ends.
It was a matter of time for what was happening to Japan to hit Steam…. I wonder if this could affect anti-Israel content…
Quite pathetic of volvo .
I have never understood the point of specifically BANS in this vein. Of course, I think that there should be control over this. But:
1) If a person can pay for content, then this person is definitely an adult most likely
2) It is more reasonable to restrict content by age than to ban it, because it turns out: We want more money, but we block everything that brings in money.
3) This content will be there in any case, any ban only fuels interest more. If not here, then in the dark side of the network it will all be there. In any case, it will be found and then it will already be without taxes, without accounting and they themselves deprive themselves of a feeding trough.
On the other hand, I cannot understand STEAM in principle. Steam is actually a monopolist in this matter. I do not know of any platforms that could compete with Steam, why such strict restrictions? As for me, this is nonsense.
P.S. Undoubtedly, there is content that is in no way acceptable in society, which is not a question of bans, but in principle of stopping such things. But now we are not talking about it.
And Valve bends the knee going back on everything they supposedly stood for.
First they went for Japan, now it’s the rest of the world.
The absolute hypocrisy of people here trying to force payment processors to do business where they don’t want to 🤣
“They shouldn’t be able to tell Valve what to do! I should be able to tell the payment processors what to do though!”
Today it’s porn. Tomorrow it’s politically unfavorable content. The next day it’s silencing marginalized groups. Payment processors should not have control over the content of the vendors they serve.
Can someone with a law degree explain to me how this isn’t tortious interference? How is a third party payment processor allowed to interfere with the existing contracts between Steam and developers? Is it just a matter of the fact that nobody has sued the payment processors for this?
This seems batshit crazy no?
Why are banks regulating this
I hate that some repressed Puritan at Visa or Mastercard gets to decide what games I play. I don’t personally wanna play Giant Dong Simulator 3000, but if someone does, they should have that ability. If it’s not illegal, it shouldn’t be prohibited by these giant monopolies.
I work for a company that develops software for handling and translating transactions between issuers and acquirers like Visa and MasterCard.
The amount of bullshit laziness those fucks mandate twice a year is insane *and* redundant since they have to check it anyway.
Their goal is to avoid illegal shit and their approach is frequently broad.
just to be clear because i’m dumb does this apply globally?
Can we just gut the payment processors and banks instead?
Valve about to batch-remove anything tagged ‘erotic’, ‘mature’ and renaming any mention of Terrorists in Counter Strike
Valve, start accepting QRIS and other payment processors that are popular across Asia and available across Asia.
You already have region locking.
Wow, even Valve caves in.
Same shit happened years ago with DLsite.
So, we are just gonna be ok with banks deciding what games we are allowed to play?
A payment card provider has no business dictating what people buy
They shouldn’t count as payment processors they should count as payment utilities.
Is this the beginning of Steams enshittification?
Looks like it is specifically Adult games containing incest and slavery content according to the article, which would make sense as a while ago Patreon and other like services banned creators who made content with the same tags.
Would Steam be able to circumvent this if you were to buy funds for their wallet instead, then using those wallet funds to buy whatever games?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just block you from using that payment form to buy that specific content?
Simple solution, we find out which payment processors are against x, y or z, compare it to law, anything that isn’t illegal that is on a payment processors list, doesn’t matter if that is a physical list or a for all intents and purposes list etc dictates that we do not use said payment processors.
Quite frankly, if people don’t break the law, they should be allowed to spend their money however the hell they want.
Also, that last line I wrote? email that to gabe, he will listen, why?
Because unlike these payment processors bellends, he’s pretty damn based. Do it politely, and it will have weight.
“hey gabe, this whole payment processors get to determine how we spend our money stuff just doesn’t feel like what we are about, so long as we don’t break laws, let us buy what WE want. Yours respectfully, a current customer who wishes to keep being a faithful one”
This move looks like a direct response to mounting pressure from financial institutions and regulators. Payment processors, especially after incidents like the Pornhub controversies a few years back, are increasingly unwilling to be associated with or facilitate transactions for content they deem problematic or legally risky.
Just curious, if one of the categories prohibited is *slavery* what does that mean for Conan Exiles or Soul Mask? Are those games going to be pulled?
Anytime a bank does something shitty like this I think to myself. Maybe that Ass hole Andrew Jackson had some positive qualities after all. What with his massive hate boner for central bank and his last words being “I killed THE bank”.
If so, it’s easier to use a gift card to buy the games than their credit card.