Steam Now Bans Games That Violate the 'Rules and Standards' of Payment Processors (engadget.com)
- Reference: 0178395542
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/07/16/2034212/steam-now-bans-games-that-violate-the-rules-and-standards-of-payment-processors
- Source link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/steam-now-bans-games-that-violate-the-rules-and-standards-of-payment-processors-and-banks-164222173.html
> The new clause states that "content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers" is not allowed and could result in removal from the platform. In other words, if credit card companies get mad about something, they could actually have the power to ban a game. The clause [2]goes on to say that this will affect "certain kinds of adult-only content."
>
> This has likely already resulted in many games being [3]pulled off the platform . SteamDB doesn't give a reason for these removals, but the timing does match up.
[1] https://www.engadget.com/gaming/steam-now-bans-games-that-violate-the-rules-and-standards-of-payment-processors-and-banks-164222173.html
[2] https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/onboarding?language=english#5
[3] https://steamdb.info/history/events/
Re: (Score:2)
> Payment providers are not allowed to work with Russian companies or Russian game developers because of sanctions and so this is a way for them to clean house and get rid of all the aggressive and violently hateful Russians on the platform.
Payment providers don't work with game developers anyway. Payment providers work with Steam. Steam can't pay developers in certain countries, and they therefore presumably aren't eligible to sell on the Steam store.
So no, this has nothing to do with who gets the money. No matter what, Steam gets the money, and Steam pays somebody else.
Re: A much needed Russian Games/GameDevs purge (Score:2)
A sock puppet wants you to believe it is not Steam enforcing the nanny state, it is mean old russia making profit off of faux pornography. You can stop russia by supporting urkraine.
I understand. (Score:5, Interesting)
The payment processors have all the power here. I doubt Steam particularly wanted to do this - otherwise that content would have been blocked before payment was an issue. And since the threat really is existential, Steam will bend. No shade to them. They aren't in the business of protecting freedoms. They just want to sell games.
My guess is that it's the mixed situation that is problematic. After all, porn companies use providers that take credit cards. Gambling sites, too. But those companies aren't selling the equivalent of Barbie dolls and bubblegum as well.
Re: (Score:2)
> The payment processors have all the power here. I doubt Steam particularly wanted to do this - otherwise that content would have been blocked before payment was an issue. And since the threat really is existential, Steam will bend.
Is it really? If Steam said, "No, we'll find another processor that isn't trying to run our business for us," they would probably not get as low a fee, but that's far from existential. It's not like the actual payment networks give a crap. They get paid either way, even if the transaction gets refunded. It's the merchant account providers that are the issue, and if one is a problem, there are almost a thousand other companies who will gladly step in and fill the void.
So from my perspective, this is Stea
Re: (Score:2)
The big two work in lock-step on this stuff. When MasterCard and Visa decree something is so, all businesses, including other payment processors, obey and follow.
Steam is Afraid of Being De-Banked (Score:1)
This is equivalent to advertisers censoring websites. Basically control of censorship is being passed along from Steam to banks. As one example, you will get de-banked and have your bank accounts closed if a bank finds out a business has anything to do with crypto. I've heard countless de-banking stories, including a guy that just had crypto is his linked in profile and was de-banked. That means no block chain usage for any games, and probably why steam already doesn't allow it already. The new GENIUS act
Re: (Score:2)
100% correct, de-banking should be illegal. If we do eliminate cash from the global economy there needs to be a public alternative to private banks. We cannot allow the power to censor to like in the hands of a few wealthy elites.
Just switch to tokens (Score:1)
I don't know why they don't just adopt what other game companies do, sell tokens (in each currency) and allow the purchase of games from those tokens. This decouples the purchasing workflow, and also lets them minimize the merchant fees when buying larger bundles.
Re: (Score:2)
the very same payment processors would refuse to collect money for said tokens, they are not this easy to workaround.
Anything you bought missing? (Score:2)
Has anybody noticed games they purchased disappearing from their library?
Re: (Score:2)
no Steam does not delete games that you have bought and installed. AFAIK they have never done that.
Re: (Score:2)
That would be illegal. At least in Europe.
The wedge (Score:1)
So, it's "questinable" games now.
With no way of fighting this or even questioning the companies forcing it, when will "they" decide that they're going to decide books/movies/music are next?
Censorship is, literally, book-burning. Just because the titles being removed aren't what you enjoy doesn't mean your media won't be targetted next.
Timing matching up? (Score:1)
Quote: "SteamDB doesn't give a reason for these removals, but the timing does match up."
I went to the linked article to find out what else happened that this matched up with but found no follow-up statements about it.
Re: (Score:2)
they mean that the long list of games being recently delisted is due to the payment processors demands.
I mean (Score:2)
On one hand, I should kinda care because payment processors should not have that much power. On the other hand, the only thing we're losing is low-quality, low-effort, fetish porn "games" - many of which probably barely count as a game at all. So, I'll consider it a wash for now.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe, but that should not be dictated by the payment processors.
Re: (Score:2)
The standards of payment processors form a very low bar, as they will process payments for all kinds of unsavory and child-inappropriate content. If even payment processors say no, then I find it hard to justify Steam's support of such content.
Re: (Score:2)
That is not true, I had to negotiate with various payment processors in order for an online startup once and they all had rules against providing services to companies selling weapons, drugs and porn (among other things).
Re: (Score:2)
So you're arguing that payment processor standards aren't low?
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. And Steam knows the age of its customers or can at least determine whether they are adult. Hence this is basically just restricting adults from what they can buy. Not good at all.
Re: (Score:2)
> but the fact is Steam is meant to be a child friendly platform that is actively targeted towards people who are underage
Steam has filtering settings, and always has since it started allowing adult-only content. That is the extent of its child-friendliness, and that hasn't changed. This doesn't get rid of adult-only content. It gets rid of.... _extreme_ adult-only content. Think "CP-adjacent cartoons, etc"
Re:Good. Steam is a CHILDREN FRIENDLY platform. (Score:5, Informative)
The default setting on the Steam Store is to fully hide adult-only content. They'll never show up on the store front page, or in search, unless you explicitly enable them . You can't even see a store page without being logged-in.
People seeing adult-only content asked for it . It's not a decision to be made by whoever. And the excuse of "but this hides other games" is bogus; there is a dedicated "adult-only" section, separate from games with occasional adult content. This is not about protecting children. The same thing happens across many platforms, including adult-only platforms.
tl;dr: buzz off, either you have no idea what you're talking about, or you're a gigantic bigot.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. This is _not_ about "protecting" children from stuff they can find all over the Internet. Steam is already doing that nicely. This has a far darker reason behind it.
Re: (Score:2)
This is about finance throwing it's weight around and is a great argument as to why cash remains critical in the global economy. We don't need central control busy-bodies getting into everyone's lives trying to force people to conform to their vision of what is right and wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
> People with no social skills and absolutely no credibility will say that this is a bad thing
I love how you front loaded your argument with an ad hominem attack. Why bother even waiting for someone's argument when you were just going to respond with a fallacy anyways? Might as well lead with your best foot forward!
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you hate sex?
Re: (Score:1)
Christians.
Re: (Score:2)
Many people who are not Christians, believe that there are limits to what should be depicted in media and games, and especially what children should be exposed to. This is not a Christian thing, it's a decency thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Why are you giving your child unfettered access to a non-restricted adult steam account with the "show adult content" setting enabled?
Re: (Score:2)
Who said that's what's happening? You must not have children, if you think such settings would styme them.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it is not. Because Steam already restricts adult games to adults.
Re: (Score:2)
And how exactly does Steam confirm that an adult is actually an adult? Oh, they just ask? OK, good, that will keep children out, for sure.
Re: (Score:2)
Payment processors will allow payments for adult-only content, so I'm pretty sure sex isn't excluded by this rule.
Re: (Score:2)
only a small subset do, look at how much trouble e.g onlyfans got until they managed to find one that didn't care.
Re: (Score:3)
> People with no social skills and absolutely no credibility
Ad hominem and gaslighting much?
The actual issue is that a payment processors should NOT be able to dictate HOW a payment is to be used. What's next, banning purchases over books? movies? Payment processors should NOT be arbitrators of morality.
> Steam is meant to be a child friendly platform
[Citation] and [Bullshit].
You DO realize that adult games are hidden by default AND you need to be logged in to see them , right?
Re: (Score:2)
Steam has always had adult controls on it, and the existence of Family Mode with the ability for an account holder to set a PIN which, if not entered, will only show a subset of the games, suggests you're not talking about Steam at all.
You don't want titties with your mass killings? (Score:2)
> People with no social skills and absolutely no credibility will say that this is a bad thing but the fact is Steam is meant to be a child friendly platform that is actively targeted towards people who are underage and so I would personally consider any of the games impacted by this to be the sort of game that probably should have been removed from the platform years ago anyway.
> Steam should be censoring more games, and removing the ones that Provide so little value that the authors have to build this kind of thing into the game to try to sell it to somebody, but in reality they are targeting our children so the game should be removed.
Nearly every hit game is a mass-killing simulator. You have the grossly brutal ones like Mortal Kombat and Doom. 99% of FPS simulate mass murder. I'd wager most RTS games have even higher bodycounts. Even Super Mario Brothers has constant murder. So unless you're only playing sports games or a select few non-violent games, you're simulating violence...even if it's comical, like Donkey Kong. So yeah, sex is uncomfortable to talk about, but I hope my kids someday have lots of fulfilling sex. I hope the