Visa and Mastercard are Deciding What You Can Buy on Steam!

Valve has added a new rule for executives on Steam without telling anyone. Steam's Rule 15 is already making things very difficult in the game business. It's not important to Rule 15 whether something is legal, shocking, or labeled as adult, like the old rules did. Instead, it stops anything that might be against the rules of the payment provider. Things happen right away, and the wording isn't clear.

Within hours of the change going live, hundreds of games were taken off of Steam's database. They were flagged for many of them not because they broke the law, but because Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal thought they were rude or dangerous. The purge only sent a "We're Sorry" email to developers who were affected, which made the community of independent developers angry and confused. People with Visa and Mastercard can't buy games anymore, which makes people angry and frustrated.

Imagine trying to buy a game on Steam and discovering that it's gone. It's not because it's illegal, but because Visa and Mastercard have chosen that you can't buy it. Tens of thousands of legal games have been taken down from Steam and itch.io in the past few weeks because of pressure from these payment providers.

It's not just material that people don't like; this is a broad crackdown that affects all kinds of games, from small independent ones to mature ones that are legal. It's scary to think that gamers no longer have power over what they can buy. Instead, just a few very large payment companies have a lot of power over what legal content can be accessed and what content is blocked.

Visa and Mastercard say they don't judge people based on their morals. Visa sent a standard email saying, "if a transaction is legal, our policy is to process it." This was in response to the growing backlash. But what's really going on tells a very different story.

These companies keep an eye on "risk" behind closed doors. This is a broad term that lets them block material not because it's illegal, but because it might cause bad press or public outrage. Activist groups like Collective Shout have been running long-term efforts to make Steam and itch.io look like "risky" platforms. Because of this, payment processors have threatened to cut off all payment choices if Steam doesn't get rid of certain adult games.

The official comments from Valve confirmed what is already known: payment processors have had to shut down thousands of legal games just to keep their access to payment networks. itch.io said the same thing, admitting that the latest changes to their policies were made because payment companies threatened them.

This brings up a fundamental question: Why does Visa have so much power over legal content if they don't really police content or make moral decisions?

The reason lies in the difference in power. In the modern economy, Visa and Mastercard are the only ones that can be used for digital purchases. This makes them the gatekeepers of trade. For businesses, being shut down online is the same thing as being labeled "risky," even if the content is legal.

This isn't just a problem with Steam or games. Japan has had similar crackdowns. Under the guise of "risk," studios that sell legal adult material have been cut off from payment options. Even the CEO of Visa Japan has spoken out against adult content, showing how personal views can lead to censorship at work.

Gamers are fighting back as a group. A lot of calls and emails are sent to Visa and Mastercard demanding fair access as part of efforts like Operation Fighting Fire with Fire. More than 100,000 people have signed petitions asking politicians to step in.

It's time to see payment processors as basic services, like water or energy, that everyone should be able to use to make legal purchases. Their uncontrolled power threatens the very idea of a free market and the freedom of choice for consumers.

You can't just ask what you want to buy; you have to ask who lets you shop for it. Gamers are fed up with this quiet control and no longer accept it. Demanding that legal material stays available to everyone, they are making their voices heard loud and clear.

Fighting this power and making sure that no company can tell you what legal material you can buy is important for the future of digital commerce.