Valve point to Mastercard restrictions as the payment firm deny influencing adult game removals

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 pointing fingers over the recent purge of adult games on Steam and Itch.io. Mastercard insists it never asked for any titles to be delisted and that it allows all lawful transactions, but Valve says its payment processors—citing Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7, which bans any sale that “may damage” the brand—pressed them to yank perfectly legal NSFW titles off their store. Valve never heard from Mastercard directly, only from the processors and acquiring banks relaying the brand-protection decree.

Meanwhile, other payment firms like Stripe blame unnamed banking partners for the crackdown, and anti-porn activists at Collective Shout are gleefully claiming credit. In the end, Valve caved and pulled the games, though Itch.io has at least relisted many free projects and is hunting for friendlier processors to handle paid adult content.