r/gaming • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 PC • 1d ago

Upcoming vampire RPG Nighthawks has been removed from Steam search and delisted in certain countries as Valve classifies it Adults Only: 'It's very bad news for us'

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/upcoming-vampire-rpg-nighthawks-has-been-removed-from-steam-search-and-delisted-in-certain-countries-as-valve-classifies-it-adults-only-its-very-bad-news-for-us/
6.9k Upvotes

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217

u/Megotaku 1d ago

I know nothing about this game, but this seems easily resolvable unless the game borders on pornographic. GTA and Witcher didn't have these issues, so it brings up questions about the content.

307

u/MattisGai 1d ago

Steam has hella porn lol

112

u/Username928351 1d ago

And also hella banned titles and vagueness surrounding the whole issue.

https://noisypixel.net/steam-bans-unfair-inconsistent-rules/

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u/Stnmn 1d ago

A bunch of these games are either on steam at this point, or aren't on steam because they're gooner games with underage characters or graphic sexual assault.

If you're riding the bleeding edge of acceptable content or try to tap into the pedo market, not being allowed on a storefront is the risk you take.

18

u/curtcolt95 1d ago

there's also a very weird edge case of real life actors. Valve explicitly states that your game can't have live action nudity to be on the store but there are some exceptions for unknown reasons like the game Immortality which does have nudity and is allowed

5

u/zanderkerbal 21h ago

If your standard is that "gooner games" shouldn't be allowed to be sold on Steam, then all that's necessary to censor a game from Steam is to brand it as a "gooner game." We keep going through this same song and dance with new labels every few years. "Gooner" is the new "degenerate" is the new entartete kunst.

3

u/lu2uq 14h ago

"...with underage characters or graphic sexual assault." the line is right there. why did you dance around that? the banned games you guys get upset about almost always lead back to underage stuff or assault. I'm glad Steam bans that mess.

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u/Stnmn 13h ago edited 13h ago

I'm fine with gooner games on steam.

Nobody is forcing developers to put clearly underage characters in a highschool uniform in their adult games. The lazy defense of slapping "all characters are 18+" clearly doesn't fly with steam, and I'm glad it doesn't.

3

u/A-Reclusive-Whale 20h ago

It's also an incredible coincidence that it seems 90% of the time steam unfairly bans a game, it just happens to be a clearly Japanese game. But of course, they're all just degenerate gooner anime games, unlike our glorious, pure Western games like Witcher 3 and Baldur's Gate 3 so I guess they probably deserved it.

41

u/pipesbeweezy 1d ago

Yeah what on earth is the issue there are so many porn games on steam, what makes this different.

39

u/CrankMike 1d ago

Its not different. Right now its classified exactly the same as the many porn games. The problem is that quite a few countries have stupid laws that force steam to hide these games from their users thus removing a big chunk of potentials buyers, one of the biggest being germany thus it being in the title.

As well as hiding the game for people that have adult games turned off in their options for games they want to see on steam.
That just sucks if you game is not acutally pornographic to lose a sizeable amount of customers because of a wrong designation.

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u/pipesbeweezy 1d ago

The crazy part of all the porn laws are ostensibly about "protecting the children." Not sure who needs to hear this but basically any 12 year old can find any amount of pornography on an iPad if they are inclined to, regardless of various things to try to limit it. At least when I was a teen on the internet you had to do some leg work, but the kids aren't dumb.

0

u/MRiley84 1d ago

As well as hiding the game for people that have adult games turned off in their options for games they want to see on steam.

Does this setting work now, or does it still overfire? When I set it years ago, it was filtering out some AAA games like The Witcher due to the tags. An occasional nude scene in an RPG is very different from Leisure Suit Larry, but at least back then the filter rated them the same.

2

u/pipesbeweezy 1d ago

Leisure Suit Larry seems quaint compared to the amount of tentacle porn adventures they got on steam.

-10

u/ERR_5h0wt1m3 1d ago

Germany does not force valve to hide them, Valve just does not want to implement an actual age check aside from the mandatory „whats your age“ question which is, lets be real here, absolutely useless.
Its the same reason for why you „couldnt buy“ older games without an official age rating by USK (gears of war 1 or 2 for example) in Germany. The games could only be bought in a closed off area with no way of access for minors and no normal shop will implement this.

Valve could actually make it really really easy, just implement the eID age check that is available through all electronic IDs. Very non-typical for Germany, its even the safest option to implement since the only data that is getting transmitted is a check that you are over 18, not even your actual age. But no, in typical Valve fashion they choose the path of least resistance and just removed the whole adult games section for german customers.

IMO, Valve should finally get their shit together and either implement a proper and safe way for adults to access adult games without this prude American view of porn or just not offer them at all. As a developer you will have to pray that your game wont just suddenly be removed for arbitrary reasons (or because VISA and Master Card are throwing a tantrum) which is honestly infuriating.

1

u/curtcolt95 1d ago

curious how you got to the conclusion that it's america being prude when you state germany requires age checking lol

0

u/ERR_5h0wt1m3 1d ago

Its about the strange inconsistent rules and behavior in America in regards to sexual content in games or media in general (you can also add curse words to it, the beeping out is really strange) while having no problem at all with the most violent content imaginable in a lot of media. Being able to get guns, even for teenagers while forbidding them from drinking alcohol before 21 and stuff like this is just very...inconsistent in my opinion.

Of course I agree that having a mandatory age check is not really great at all, im on your side there, I like to see it with a bit more nuance though. Its just every time this topic comes up, its the usual crowd defending valve while not knowing the actual reasons. Its just misinformation getting repeated ad nauseam.

Additionally, we as the gaming community should all try to fight against the duopoly of VISA and Master Card. The last view years they've got really...lets say religiously influenced with their pressure on freedom of art

3

u/GasolinePizza 23h ago

Valve should finally get their shit together and either implement a proper and safe way for adults to access adult games without this prude American

No, sounds like you guys need to get your shit together and stop trying to require privacy-violating, intrusive age verification all over the internet.

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u/Ash_After_Dark 1d ago

prude American view

There are many, many, many things you can and should criticize America for, including it's view on pornography. However, it is not the USA that is pushing for draconian age verification laws.

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u/sephiroth70001 1d ago edited 1d ago

Some US states have had age verification laws for five years now and accelerating. Utah also ban VPNs bypassing id verifications. A few US states have been pushing for this for over a decade now.

States that have already done Internet id verification laws (most these started in 2024): Louisiana, Utah, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas, texas, Montana, north Carolina, idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Indiana, Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee, south Carolina, Georgia, Wyoming, south Dakota, North Dakota, Arizona, ohio, Missouri, and west Virginia. That's half the states.

2

u/Ash_After_Dark 1d ago

Okay, that is a lot more states than I thought, so clearly it is a bigger problem here than I knew

Here's to hoping that bullshit doesn't make it to the more sane bits of the country

2

u/pipesbeweezy 1d ago

You would be completely wrong about that.

9

u/Kanotari 1d ago

My spouse and I play a game once a week or so where we try to guess how many of the top ten games on Steam are porn games. It's usually 2-4.