Valve is changing its course and radically altering the guidelines for Steam. In the future, many more games with controversial content will be published on Steam.
A lot will change radically on Steam. In the future, the number of games with controversial content is expected to rise dramatically. Valve has decided to allow almost all games going forward – regardless of sexual, violent, or otherwise offensive content. Many fans are cheering – as this is what they have wished for a long time.
Incorrect emails as a trigger: The Steam community has been restless for a while. A few weeks ago, Valve sent emails to publishers asking them to adjust the content of their games and to remove erotic content. This mainly affected “anime games,” such as visual novels or the popular HuniePop. Shortly after, Valve apologized, called the emails an internal error, and decided that they should be ignored.
Among the players, however, a discussion began about the criteria Valve would use for selection. Why is sexuality in “HuniePop” forbidden but acceptable in “Witcher III”? These discussions prompted Valve to rethink its decision-making process for game acceptance.
Valve doesn’t want to be a judge anymore: Erik Johnson explains that Valve no longer wants to act as a judge deciding what content is acceptable on Steam and what isn’t. They neither want to limit players in their consumption nor impose burdens on developers that stifle their creativity. Therefore, all games will basically be allowed on Steam in the future, as long as standards (quality, legality, no customer deception, etc.) are adhered to.
“Valve should not decide [which games should appear on Steam]. If you are a player, we should not choose for you which content you can or cannot buy. If you are a developer, we should not decide what content you can or cannot create.”
Players will hate games and that’s okay. Valve warns that their new, liberal view will lead to every player on Steam discovering games they personally find offensive. This will be the norm in the future, but new search filters and settings will allow filtering out games with corresponding content (like “anime games”). These games will no longer appear in the Steam store and will never be recommended.
“This means that there will be things in the Steam Store that you hate and think shouldn’t exist. Unless you have no opinion at all, this will definitely happen. But you will also see things in the store that you think should be there and other players will hate them and want them not to exist.”
The only exception to this rule is games of an illegal nature and “obviously troll games.” These boundaries will not be backed down from.
Local laws will still be respected. Anyone who is now cheering and thinking that they will finally find uncensored World War II games with swastikas or extreme brutality on Steam is mistaken. Valve will still have to adhere to local laws when distributing games. Therefore, if developers offer a “violence-reduced” version for Germany, it will still be offered. The changes only affect the “general acceptance” into the Steam store.
Changes may take a long time: The blog post also indicates that this is not a change that happens overnight. Valve has to make many changes to Steam and work out the exact details. The process could therefore take several months.
What do you think about these changes? Is this an improvement for Steam? Or did you find the restrictions good until now?
