Valve is no longer accepting Early Access games with sexually explicit content. The renewed pressure on adult games is part of the chain of demands that payment processors put through to storefronts like Steam and itch, but resistance from affected devs and users demanding free art has risen dramatically.

In an update on their handlings of adult games as part of the recent discussion between payment processors and storefronts, Valve is now disallowing Early Access submissions for games with explicit sexual content. “Your app has failed our review because we're unable to support the Early Access model of development for a game with mature themes”, the company states in a new message that went out to studios uploading adult Early Access games.

The company did not make clear what the reason was, though assumingly it is because payment processors are uncomfortable with games adding additional content that could possibly transgress against their increasingly oppressive content guidelines for media they allow payment for.

The issue was made public when developers of adult games shared the messages they received from Steam when trying to apply for Early Access. One of those developers is the studio Dammitbird, developers of the adult adventure game Heavy Hearts. “Due to current events, I panicked and contacted my publisher to help me get on Steam Early Access. The general rule is that your game should be  about 65% done before doing EA. Well, we are about 70% done so the time was right anyway. But now, all of a sudden and without a policy announcement, the rules have changed and now I can't join Steam EA”, the developer explains in a statement to GamesMarkt.

The message appearing to adult game developers trying to release in Early Access on Steam. (Dammitbird)

The development is part of an ever-narrowing canal of distribution methods for games that include sexual content, with payment processors pressuring itch.io to delist or at least de-index adult games just recently. “Heavy Hearts is still available on itch, but you'll never be able to search it, because it is de-indexed. I made a free demo page that you can find though. Itchio was 50% of my games revenue. It's how I paid my artists and other partners. I still have Patreon and Subscribestar, they are keeping the game afloat, but it won't be enough in the long run”, says Dammitbird. Other storefronts are under similar pressure or have already taken steps to disallow adult content, such as Gumroad did, even though other stores like itch are seeking possibilities to relist games. “It's hard to promote your game on platforms like X because they deboost any mention of Patreon or other socials. Since Patreon used to be the king of de-listing kinky adult games, I never put much stock in it. Now it's basically all I have, and I still have the risk of getting deplatformed from it.”

Protest against payment processor's pressure on storefront as well as the handling of the storefronts themselves and the Anti-Porn lobbyist group that started it has not let up in the last months. Apart from journalists, developers and activist calling for daily calls to the payment processor's call centers, several petitions like the one spearheaded by German journalists have gathered a critical mass of petitioners. Even game industry associations from around the globe have chimed in, critisising the pressure payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, Visa and Mastercard are putting on game storefronts.

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