Steam Stops Displaying Games Without Age Ratings in Germany
– 1 min read
As already announced in March, Steam will in future only show German users games that have an age rating. Now, there is a definite date for it.
From 15 November, German Steam users will only be able to view games that have a German age rating. To obtain such a rating, developers or publishers must complete the relevant questionnaire on Steam. The game is then rated and released for the German market based on this. If a title already has a USK rating, this can be indicated in the questionnaire.
The strict regulation goes back to a request from the German authorities. As we reported in March (in German), the BZKJ (Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz; Federal Agency for the Protection of Children and Young People in the Media) had informed Steam that all games published in Germany require an age rating and that this also applies retrospectively to older games.
Steam then asked all manufacturers who wanted to keep their games available for the German market to use the corresponding age rating questionnaire. Steam had already introduced its own age rating system for Germany in March 2023. Although this was not developed in conjunction with the USK or IARC, it was also met with positive feedback there.
Written by
Stephan Steininger is Director of Operations and Editor-in-Chief of GamesMarket. As part of the magazine since its inception in 2001, he knows the GSA games industry by heart.
