On October 28, indie survival horror Red Pine Lake claimed that Steam had rejected its application to launch a store page, citing the key art featuring a woman in a one-piece swimsuit as the reason. However, in a rare victory against rising censorship on the platform, the decision was reportedly overturned just a week later.
How Indie Studio Sakura Pushed Back Against Steam Censorship
Earlier this month, on November 2, developer Sakura Studios shared a supposed chat log with the Steam Team, in which a storefront representative allegedly said that "Focusing the topic of the image on a woman's behind is indeed sexual in nature, regardless of what she's wearing", and that it would need to be updated.
This presented a major problem; the team was asked to apply the relevant categories to their game, so it ticked the 'General Mature Content', 'Frequent Violence or Gore', and 'Some Nudity or Sexual Content' boxes, but Steam would not approve a game with sexual content on the store page itself, and it allegedly considered a woman's behind - regardless of clothing - as sexual in nature. The tags didn't matter.
As Sakura Studios pointed out, there are plenty of adult games with sexual content on the storefront. In response to this, the Steam Support agent reportedly said, "If you look long enough, I'm sure you'll find plenty of other partners who are breaking our rules".
"Steam themselves told us that all mature games, even adult-only, have to have no sexual imagery in the capsules or library assets," Sakura Studios claimed. "All games now, including 18+, can't have sexual images according to Steam's new rules."
Sakura Studios refused to update the artwork in protest, stating that "There are principles involved" and that "it's more than just an image". Instead, the team asked for a different agent, and Steam reportedly obliged.
There is no special 18+ setting that exempts people from this rule anymore; we just got hit because the page has been submitted after their rules changed.
"The tone is very different, and I think they are aware of the noise this situation has caused," Sakura said. "We have asked very specific questions into our situation and want clarity on the rules. As going forward, we have concerns about Steam's future. We respect that they have listened to our request, and we are willing to try and resolve the situation."
This new agent allegedly walked back the rejection, deciding that the previous ruling had been overzealous; "Thanks for your patience here. After further evaluation, we don't think your graphical assets rise to the level of maturity in those linked guidelines, so we've approved them for release," the new agent said.
It's an inspiring message to other indie developers at a time when censorship is running rife on the platform, as payment processors such as Visa and MasterCard pressure Valve to clamp down on adult content, prompting nebulous guidelines that are far too open to interpretation to meaningfully abide by.
"We Stood Our Ground"
"We stood our ground and didn't bend the knee," Sakura Studios said. "We will keep fighting censorship. If we can win, so can you! We are a small team, hardly anyone knew of, but we stood for what we believed in and won against the biggest platform!"
The team claims that the page will not be live for up to five days as it had to resubmit its application, though it claims that Valve assured it would go through. Sakura promises in the meantime to share updates on what the rules are, whether 18+ games are being censored, and if it's Valve's stance that featuring a woman's behind, regardless of clothing, is sexual under Steam's new guidelines.
We have reached out to Valve to confirm the validity of Red Pine Lake's claims, and will update the article if and when it responds.
