Valve point to Mastercard restrictions as the payment firm deny influencing adult game removals | Rock Paper Shotgun
Mastercard say they're not to blame for Steam's NSFW game cull, but Valve claim that payment processors cited specific Mastercard rules as a pressuring tactic.
rockpapershotgun.com
Valve and Mastercard are duking it out over who’s really behind the recent purge of adult/NSFW games from Steam (and Itch.io). Mastercard insists it never pressured any platform to delist games and that it “allows all lawful transactions.” Valve, however, says their payment processors blanked on legal adult titles by waving around Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7—which bans anything that “may damage the goodwill of the Corporation”—and that those processors cited it explicitly when demanding removals.
Meanwhile, other players in the saga are pointing fingers, too: Stripe claims it was simply following banks’ own restrictions, and the only group cheering loudest is the activist Collective Shout. In the fallout, Valve reluctantly complied, while Itch.io has already relisted dozens of free games and is hunting for friendlier payment partners for paid NSFW content.
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