Valve Software wants to let every game on Steam as long it isn’t illegal or trolling. That means adult-themed content is welcome on the platform. The company made that commitment to let everything on Steam in early June following backlash to its plan to remove sexual visual novels from Japan from it…
Valve Software wants to let every game on Steam as long it isn’t illegal or trolling. That means adult-themed content is welcome on the platform. The company made that commitment to let everything on Steam in early June following backlash to its plan to remove sexual visual novels from Japan from its platform. The company backpedaled from that stance and embraced an open version of Steam, but it also promised new tools to help people ensure they don’t see certain kinds of games on their version of the store… and now Valve is withholding some games from Steam until it can get those new tools ready, according to at least one developer.
Shining Song Starnova developer Love In Space told fans on Twitter that Valve won’t add its game to the store until it can get the tools that would enable you and me to block Steam from ever showing us a game like that.
Love In Space also said it has no time table about when to expect its game or those filtering options on one of the largest portal’s for PC game sales in the world. But Valve has confirmed that it is working on them and that it is withholding certain games.
“Yes, some titles are being held,” a Valve spokesperson wrote in a note to Gamasutra . “We will have more info on this soon.”
In a blog post on Steam from last month, the one that addressed what Valve should let on Steam, long-time Valve engineer Erik Johnson said that it wasn’t the company’s role to play gatekeeper. Instead, the company should build the tools players and developers need to find one another. He also gave some early ideas of what Valve is thinking about when it comes to new ways of controlling your Valve shopping experience.
“Taking this approach allows us to focus less on trying to police what should be on Steam, and more on building those tools to give people control over what kinds of content they see,” said Johnson. “We already have some tools, but they’re too hidden and not nearly comprehensive enough. We are going to enable you to override our recommendation algorithms and hide games containing the topics you’re not interested in. So if you don’t want to see anime games on your Store, you’ll be able to make that choice. If you want more options to control exactly what kinds of games your kids see when they browse the Store, you’ll be able to do that.”
Personally, I’m hoping I can turn Steam into nothing but adult anime games. Where are my waifus, Gabe!
