There's precedent - these things always have unforseen consequences:
In the last two weeks, thousands of “adult only” and “not safe for work” games have disappeared from Steam and itch.io – two of the most prominent distribution platforms for PC video games – as they scrambled to comply with stricter rules mandated by payment processors such as MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal. These rules were established after a campaign by the organisation Collective Shout, which urged payment processors to stop facilitating payments to platforms hosting “rape, incest and child sexual abuse-themed games”. But the new rules have affected a far broader range of games – including some award-winning titles.
And of course, it’s hitting those who aren’t exactly known for their quiet acceptance of any halt to their desires, unfortunately for its government sponsors:
But these include games that explore queer identity and sexuality, such as Radiator 2 by Robert Yang, a former teacher at New York University’s Game Center. And the rules have also hit games that do not depict sex in any way at all. These include Last Call, a game about surviving domestic violence by award-winning game designer Nina Freeman, and Consume Me, a game about disordered eating which has also won numerous industry awards.
In a Bluesky post, Yang described Collective Shout and payment processors as “waging culture war against LGBTQ people and sexual expression”, while Consume Me’s developers told Wired that it is “completely unacceptable that payment processors are conducting censorship-by-fiat and systematically locking adult content creators out of platforms”.
As the song goes, ‘There may be trouble ahead…’
