Link: 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/

Nighthawks, the long-in-development vampire RPG due to be released later this month, is the latest game to run afoul of Steam's increasingly stringent rules regarding adult content. According to publisher Wadjet Eye Games, the game has been labelled 'Adults Only'—causing it to be removed from Steam search and outright delisted in certain countries like Germany—despite claims from both developer and publisher that the RPG's depictions of sex and nudity are very mild.

"We are aware that Steam has classified Nighthawks as an adult game and has excluded it from searches," Wadjet Eye boss Dave Gilbert wrote on Bluesky. "We are working on it. Valve is under the impression that this game is way sexier than it actually is." Gilbert further commented that "Valve is basically treating Nighthawks like a porn game!" in responding to a reply to his initial post.

A game being labelled Adults Only can affect its visibility in several ways. Adults Only games will not appear in Steam searches by default, requiring users to log in, verify their age (which requires the use of a credit card in some countries) and adjust their preferred content settings before they become visible. In addition, the label can cause games to be delisted outright in certain countries.

Become an undead predator who stalks and murders human beings without conscience... But god forbid you see a tiddy.

FYI to anyone interested in games with sexual content: You can change the default settings so these games do still appear when searching.

There's not even any tiddies! They're all (according to the dev) covered by scenery. But you can have sex with a bear in BG3 and that's not adult content

Yep I can see them in search but I'm an Australian with no credit card, that's all I can see.

Well I hope Valve realizes they just gave the devs of this game the best excuse to un-hide them! >:3

The problem with this is that in the UK and now Australia, to view 'Adult' games you need to verify your age with a credit card. Something that isn't common to have in either country. And in Germany the game is completely delisted.

And unfortunately this doesn't help buy shit that is banned in your region.

The sex with Halsen as a bear is like the only scene you don't actually see, it is merely implied. But the other sex scenes are just a slight change to camera angle away from full on visible penetration.

Wait, so how both country pay for the game?

What do you mean?

Guys I'm really, really, really tired of purity culture

This is really unfortunate.

I dont think Wadjet has ever published a bad game, although I think this is the first non-point and click adventure they're involved with.

I'm really curious to see how this game turns out, and this kind of complication means that it being a success is much less likely, even if it deserves it.

They're presumably not sending cash, so what's the payment method? Direct bank transfer?

It's the puritans forcing companies to cover the legal asses that's the issue. Those people refuse to take responsibility for themselves & their kids, instead forcing the rest of the world to act as their personal morality police so they don't have to.

Debit cards normally.

Yea but BG3 was highly marketed and anticipated, whereas this will be the first time many are hearing of Nighthawks.

Valve should treat all games equally. So this is just favoritism bullshit.

Except Minthara. There's a solid LXIX scene with her, and while not exactly porn, it would definitely make a teenager watching skinemax in the eighties very happy.

Im in australia, so it probs will be banned here anyway

Luckily GOG isn't affected at this stage.

I don't think it was ever about the kids. Grown adults are freaking the fuck out on the regular about media and always have been =/

LXIX?

It's a number in Roman numerals that's nice.

Oh, lol.

Well, we've got one side of the story. If the dev gives us what they gave Valve, then maybe we can see who is right.

Shouldn't that work the same way? It can still pull your data from your bank for age verification, at least thats how it works here (malaysia). So people who use gift card are the one got blocked off.

Kickstarter backers have had playtest access for like a year or two now. The classification is complete nonsense.

Especially when butt stuff's "allowed". I mean, c'mon. I'm not one to kink shame, yet... just own it.

Besides, if your invisible friend is duped by the ol' trench run? Maybe lose that dead weight. 🤘🏼🤗

he said, to no one in particular

Baphomet has always loved you, btw.

Legally, they have to treat them differently, if Steam sells a game like BG3 and some government doesn't like it, they have a PEGI rating to point to.

But if Steam sells a game like this without a rating from an age rating agency and a government doesn't like it or requires ages verification for it, that's on Valve.

I'm pretty sure they don't pull any actual customer data from the bank (GDPR) and just assume minors don't have credit cards. I haven't checked for all of Europe, but in Germany and Austria you have to be 18 to get one, so the fact you have one in your name can act as sufficient proof that you are an adult without transferring any actual personal data.

Debit cards on the other hand are legal for minors and common for people as young as 12.

Kids can watch any porn they like for free on the hub, but heavens forbid an adult wants to pay for and jerk off over RPG character tits.

I see, forgot about the GDPR thing.

10's: I remember (M14) going to a friends place to play GTA SA. He was the lucky few who had a dad that didn't care about it's 17+ rating. We all know the first thing we did after jacking a car.

Back then the game was still available to purchase from most game shops. Leisure Suit Larry wasn't tho.

Because it's too small so nobody cares about it. If it ever approaches the type of market penetration Steam has, they'll be getting the same pressures from the puritans too.

At least in Germany you have to classify your game. You don't have to get it checked by an organisation (USK) for online publishing like steam (but you could if you wanted) but you have to at least fill out a questionnaire.

If you publish without anything, you will get your ass whooped properly.

Sounds to me as if they did nothing.

I think the normies just find the niche hard to appreciate. People don't think about things like ownership and DRM until they are forced to.

It also pronounces a bit like "LICKS", which is a very nice coincidence.

It's about control. If it wasn't sex, it would be something else. Eg.: it is already also several other elses.

Dude exactly. There's a ton of self-righteous people that just believe certain things shouldn't exist and if they ban all the sex stuff, they'll move on to the next thing.

It doesn't stop other sites that do want your personal data to ask for photo ID and a matching selfie, as the GDPR still lets you collect data when it's strictly necessary, so only ever inconvenienced companies using it for evil or who outsourced something to a company that used data for evil. Once robust age verification becomes necessary, collecting any data that helps you verify ages is effectively fair game. You can easily point out in court that adults sometimes sleep while their children are awake, so theoretically could access their credit card without waking them, and therefore you felt it was necessary to collect more data.

Don't you love it when a game distribution company controls such a large market share that they can make or break any developer/publisher. Simply for breaching some vague "morality" policy pushed by a bunch of puritans.

God, I love capitalism. /s

Valve also collected massively more money from BG3 sales than it would ever get from this game.

And that monopoly itself is subordinate to the supermonopoly of payment processors which are basically their own geopolitical superpower now.

Why are porn games banned in Germany? What a stupid place.

probably lobbied against by Grossen Kinkenspielezeug, they've got a lot of influence in germany

I feel like there's an opportunity here to make it more sexy to get all the horny sales.

Fun fact: prostitution is legal in Germany.

They're not. The seller just has to verify customer age, same as when e.g. buying alcohol in the supermarket or entering a gambling hall.

Valve has simply been refusing to do so, even though eID makes privacy-preserving age verification trivial, frankly.

Oh but it is. As a german I can tell you that a lot of adult themed games are not available in germany.
It is "fun", they send me advertising Mails with this games, but when I try to open the links then nothing is there only a redirect to the store homepage.

That's the garden variety censorship though, right? Your government deciding no one should be allowed access, not just restricting access behind mandatory state sanctioned identity theft like some of the more "Enlightened" countries have.

The sort of thing digital-only currencies were supposed to fix, until that became a wiggly line for cocaine enthusiasts to bet on.

Like everything else now.