PayPal is the latest payment system to stop processing Steam transactions in some countries due to alleged concerns about explicit games on Valve's storefront.
In a new question added to its Purchasing Issues Q&A page, Valve explained that in July, "PayPal notified Valve that their acquiring bank for payment transactions in certain currencies was immediately terminating the processing of any transactions related to Steam. This affects Steam purchases using PayPal in currencies other than EUR, CAD, GBP, JPY, AUD and USD."
While no further explanation was given, Valve said it "hope[d] to offer PayPal as an option for these currencies in the future but the timeline is uncertain. We are also evaluating adding additional payment methods on Steam for the customers affected by this." It then suggested affected players use a Steam Wallet code instead to add funds to their accounts.
In a further statement to RPS, a Valve spokesperson confirmed this withdrawal of support for Steam "is regarding content on Steam, related to what we’ve previously commented on surrounding Mastercard."
"In this case, one of PayPal’s acquiring banks decided to stop processing any Steam transactions, which cut off PayPal on Steam for a number of currencies," Valve added.
Last month, Steam removed numerous "adult-only" games from its platform. It also added a new guideline to its policy, stating that "content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers" would not be permitted.
Itch.io similarly "deindexed" thousands of NSFW games from its browse and search pages. In a statement, itch.io said it had recently "came under scrutiny from our payment processors" following pressure from organization Collective Shout regarding adult games. The indie game store then said it was conducting a "comprehensive audit" of its content to ensure it can meet payment processor requirements, before confirming it would be "re-introducing paid content slowly" and was in ongoing discussions with payment processors. After a considerable backlash from players and developers alike, Mastercard denied that it had pressured Steam and Itch.io to delist adult games, although Valve, in turn, disputed this claim.
Collective Shout is a non-profit group that purports to fight against "the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls in media, advertising, and pop culture." But although its campaign is allegedly an effort to pressure processors to stop allowing payments for "rape and incest" games, game developers are claiming that the refusal of payment processors to allow people to purchase such content freely amounts to censorship, as porn itself isn't illegal. The ban is also impacting games that artfully explore trauma, assault, and other heavy topics or those that attempt to raise awareness of issues, such as sex trafficking.
Photo by Dabe Alan/Future Publishing via Getty Images.
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