Valve no longer permits games with “mature themes” to release in early access

Valve reportedly no longer permits games with “mature themes” to be released in early access.

As detailed by Dammitbird and reported by GamesMarkt, adult game Heavy Hearts failed Valve’s review last month “because [Valve is] unable to support the Early Access model of development for a game with mature themes.” The developer was invited to resubmit the game for approval when it was “ready to launch without Early Access.”

Though Valve did not expand on why games with mature themes have been quietly removed from the Early Access process — and it remains unclear what, precisely, is meant by “mature themes” — it’s thought this is just the latest in a long line of changes from digital storefronts like Steam and itch.io following pressure by its payment processors and conservative activitists to moderate adult content on their sites.

“Due to current events, I panicked and contacted my publisher to help me get on Steam Early Access,” the developer told GamesMarkt. “The general rule is that your game should be about 65% done before doing EA. Well, we are about 70% done so the time was right anyway. But now, all of a sudden and without a policy announcement, the rules have changed and now I can’t join Steam EA.

“Heavy Hearts is still available on itch, but you’ll never be able to search it, because it is de-indexed.

“It’s hard to promote your game on platforms like X because they deboost any mention of Patreon or other socials. 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.”

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Valve for clarification and will update as/when we receive a response.

Itch.io “deindexed” all adult NSFW content from its browse and search pages back in July after an open letter from conservative campaign group Collective Shout called for a stop to “payment processors profiting from rape, incest and child abuse games on Steam,” targeting the CEOs of PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and Japan Credit Bureau (JCB).

For more on the situation, read our feature, what’s going on with Steam and itch.io’s crackdown on adult content.