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Valve kicks 179 rule-breaking games off Steam

Valve is keeping rule-breakers from getting too comfortable on its massive digital game platform, even as Steam shifts toward a more open platform.

Alissa McAloon, Publisher

October 2, 2018

1 Min Read
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Recent changes made to Steam have opened the platform up to games with adult themes, but Valve is still endeavoring to remove games that either don’t follow the rules or fall into that “straight up trolling” category.

As spotted by Kotaku, Valve has removed 179 games from Steam in the past week, the majority of which appear, even on first glance, to be against the store’s open content rules.

Those removals include a slew of games with Achievement Hunter in the title (something long against Steam’s rules), a number of games with over-the-top political titles that likely fell into that “straight-up trolling” category, and multiple featuring the word hentai that presumably featured adult content that didn’t quite follow Valve’s disclosure and filtering rules. Kotaku has a list with a few more of the removed games, while a more complete roundup can be found on the unofficial Steam tracker Steam Tools.

Valve paved the way for games with adult themes and sexual content to go live on the platform through an update released last month, though even seeing adult games in search results requires a Steam user to log in and opt-in to adult content ahead of time. On the developer side, Valve requires developers to disclose any adult content during the approval process so adult titles can be properly sorted under the new system.

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About the Author

Alissa McAloon

Publisher, GameDeveloper.com

As the Publisher of Game Developer, Alissa McAloon brings a decade of experience in the video game industry and media. When not working in the world of B2B game journalism, Alissa enjoys spending her time in the worlds of immersive sandbox games or dabbling in the occasional TTRPG.

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