Valve Tightens Steam Rules, Removes Adult Games

Valve is tightening its rules regarding 'adults-only' content to comply with requirements from Steam's payment processing partners, leading to the removal of dozens of sexually explicit games from the platform this past week.

As reported by GameSpark and noted by Automaton, SteamDB logs reveal significant behind-the-scenes activity. This coincided with Steam updating its 'Rules and Guidelines' policy to clarify that publishing "certain kinds" of adult-only content may now constitute a violation.

The newly added clause 15 explicitly prohibits content on Steam 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 SteamDB account on X / Twitter shared an extensive list of recently delisted pornographic games.

This is possibly related to PayPal because people in certain regions have not been able to use it to pay on Steam for the past five days.

Perma link to list of removals from the store: https://t.co/Vy44Q0hVGN

— SteamDB (@SteamDB) July 16, 2025

This move follows a public controversy earlier this year, when UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle criticized Steam for hosting a sexually explicit visual novel featuring a protagonist involved in non-consensual acts, including rape and incest. After the game was pulled from sale in the UK, Canada, and Australia, developer Zerat Games announced it would voluntarily withdraw the title.

However, Valve's updated guidelines have drawn criticism from some quarters, with concerns raised about potential censorship and the ambiguous wording of the new rules.

In a separate development earlier today, we covered a story about Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell, who provided a rare glimpse into his life aboard the superyacht he refers to as his "boat."