There is a lot of weird stuff on Steam. It isn’t just issues of poor content, though there is plenty of that, and it isn’t just an issue of toxic developers. Steam currently has an issue of how it wants to regulate its own marketplace. Because Steam does not follow the ESRB, rating systems are irrelevant to its process, but with their recent removal and ban of the game You Must be 18 or Older to Enter, Steam may finally be taking steps to gate content.

Despite protests from the developer, Steam has removed the game You Must be 18 or Older to Enter. The game, which straddles the line between art and something else, is about a boy home alone in the 90s and discovering porn for the first time. Though the game features only ASCII art (which is art created using keystrokes), it is “semi-NSFW” and the developers used “filters to blur naked bodies”.

Steam has had little to say about the removal of the game or policies going forward. In fact, James Cox, the creator, was never even informed of the games removal. Instead, he found out from a fan given a free key. When he contacted Steam for additional information, he learned that they had decided to remove the game for being too pornographic.

Cox was quick to say that by US law, his game does not fall under the purview of pornography, but with the game featuring simulated moans and nudity, that may have been more than enough for Steam. In fact, because of Steam’s unique marketplace, they aren’t under any obligation to protect or honor developers. The marketplace is completely at the behest of Valve, something which has thus far operated as a largely free market with this being the first real game banned for porn related reasons. This is something that has caused quite a bit of confusion, and in an AMA this year, fans asked Gabe Newell about this issue, which he didn’t really give a full answer to.

For Steam junkies, browsing games and then finding one marked ‘nudity’ or ‘sexual content’ isn’t uncommon, but it’s harder to know what those games are without actually buying them. Games like Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning are definitely sexual in nature, but because so many of these games are also visual novels, the publisher will often release ‘safe’ versions of the games. These versions contain the plot and game elements but forego any of the sex scenes, or, if they do have sex scenes, they are the equivalent of softcore sex in America, where only bodies and breasts are shown.

In this way, Steam threads a very peculiar needle. Other games like Ladykiller in a Bind are clearly erotic in nature. The game is the equivalent of an erotic novel, but it has still found a place onto Steam.

While Gabe Newell’s answer gave the slightest bit of insight into Valve’s opinion, it gave little insight into what it means for everyone else. Since the beginning of the year, Steam has changed how it regulates its market drastically, removing hundreds of shovelware games – games cloned and produced en mass with very low quality – and updated rating systems left and right. This is most probably just the beginning of a far larger step towards adding regulation to an unregulated, and sometimes dangerous market, and while adult games will continue to appear, this may farewell to many of the erotic games that currently populate Steam.