Steam Quietly Bans Certain Games From Releasing in Early Access

Steam has enacted a new rule that prevents some games from being released in its early access program. In 2013, Steam began a pretty innovative program that quickly became a source of controversy. Games could be released in a state known as “early access”, which essentially allowed developers to put their game out there in an unfinished state. No one was being tricked, it was always made clear that it was a work in progress, but often times you have to pay to even be part of early access. Some games are far more complete than others so it’s not always a big deal, but sometimes it can feel like audiences are being a bit cheated.

With that said, a lot of games take advantage of early access and it’s not a bad way for a developer to not only secure some funding, but also gain feedback on the game. Even major publishers like EA have used it for Skate, though without requiring players to pay for it. It’s a pretty valuable tool for marketing as well. Despite the fact early access is typically paid for, it is often at a lower cost than a typical game. As a result, more people can invest in it easily and give the game the opportunity to spread through word of mouth. After Steam succeeded with this model, Xbox adopted it as well. PlayStation has pushed back on early access in most cases, which is why games like Arma Reforger came to PS5 so late, but it’s still something companies are figuring out.

Steam Blocks NSFW Games from Early Access

With that said, Steam has seemingly made it so one genre can’t be in early access. According to developer Dammitbird, adult games (AKA the massively NSFW games) can no longer be submitted to the early access program on Steam. The developer is working on a new NSFW game known as Heavy Hearts and posted a rejection notice from Valve stating that Steam’s early access model doesn’t support games with “adult themes”. It’s unclear why Steam has adopted this policy, as it does allow pornographic games and one of them is even on the best sellers list for the platform right now.

The developer was encouraged by Valve to bring Heavy Hearts to Steam once it was 100% completed and was no longer needing the early access program. Dammitbird expressed frustration to a website known as Gamesmarket, noting that there aren’t many places to list NSFW games and gain any kind of visibility.

“It’s hard to promote your game on platforms like X because they deboost any mention of Patreon or other socials,” said the developer. “Since Patreon used to be the king of de-listing kinky adult games, I never put much stock in it. Now it’s basically all I have, and I still have the risk of getting deplatformed from it.”

There was a push earlier this summer from a group known as Collective Shout to deplatform and decrease visibility of NSFW games. The group targeted payment processors like Visa to put pressure on them and force a change, prompting websites like Itch.io to deindex the titles. Whether or not Steam is making some broader changes to limit NSFW games remains to be seen, but it is a notable and sudden change that isn’t being overly advertised by Valve right now.

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