Numerous older games have recently disappeared for German players on Steam. However, the community is committed to bringing the players back.
Why have the games disappeared? On November 15, 2024, a legal regulation came into effect in Germany requiring all games on Steam to have an age rating. The reasoning behind this action lies in youth protection.
This resulted in 23,000 unverified games disappearing from the platform for German players. This primarily affects older games, as all games released on Steam since 2020 must undergo an age rating as part of the release process.
While many players miss some of their games, the community has a plan to bring the games back.
Among the many titles on Steam, there are some curiosities, such as Supermarket Together. You can watch the trailer here:
Small process, big effect
What is this plan? As soon as the developers of a game perform the age rating for their game on Steam, the title will also reappear in the libraries of German players. This process is a quick one that takes only a few minutes.
The community call on Reddit aims to contact the developers and studios of the affected games and ask them to complete the age rating for their games. Additionally, the post includes a guide for developers on how to perform the rating.
While the chance of reaching large studios might be lower, especially indie developers could be relatively easy to contact. This could mean that some of the 23,000 missing games will be available again in the foreseeable future.
Did you know that the games you purchase through Steam and similar platforms are not actually yours? Just a few weeks ago, there was a small change at Steam that is meant to remind you of this fact even more: Steam now reminds you that the purchased games don’t really belong to you
