PC Games from Japan on Steam

Payment Processors VS. Japanese Adult Games

Hey guys, how's it been? Its been a while since we exchanged pleasantries, but today I have something important I want to broach to you. As you well know, ugly things have been happening here on Steam, and its become a topic I feel like we should talk about, and one that directly affects the fate of doujinsoft games on Steam in a very big way. If you've the time, please join me below:

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Just recently, atleast one of Steam's major payment processors has come to dictate what is allowed to be sold on Steam, and Steam is complying with the dictate. I'm always hesitant to talk about a situation that is ongoing and evolving all of the time, but I feel like things have calmed down in the past day or so that we can address whats going on.

By this point, the picture has become a bit less murky, although some specifics are still unknown. Let's start from where I think this began, but skipping over the prologue which involves not just the short-lived release of the game "No Mercy", but the long ongoing saga of payment processor harassment endured by Japanese game sellers. Information about that I'll link at the very bottom, but it is very important to the understanding of this issue.

For the rest of this article, I'm going to be censoring certain words in an obvious and readable way. This is not to be a prude, or to protect the reader's eyes, but because Steam's content vetting is mysterious and will often times block posts using certain keywords. This post also assumes that you reading are of like-mind to me, which is not something I ask of you at all. It's perfectly fine to be in favor of these recent happenings, or to simply not care.

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On around July 13th or so, Steam disabled Paypal processing in some countries with no explanation. On July 15th, Valve started delisting games from Steam. This would be the first of several (and currently ongoing) waves removing games. Of this first wave, there was a clear emphasis on games with inc*st in the title, and aside from a handful of Japanese games, it seemed to affect mostly games published by (the notorious) EroticGamesClub. Next, this would expand to dozens of Japanese games containing themes of inc*st and non-consenting sex, but not always. This is ongoing, with new games getting removed.

Also on the 15th, Steam updated its product Onboarding page to include the following new clause:

Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.

This gives payment companies full reign to decide what is allowed on Steam, superseding Valve's own guidelines. NOTE: Even if an alternative payment service is used to buy the taboo contents, the payment processor is making it clear it is barring its service from Steam entirely, just for having the content, even if their service isn't being used to pay for it.

Later, it was found that anti-p*rnography feminist advocacy group "Collective Shout" was claiming responsibility, where they and their affiliates have wrote letters to just about every major payment processor demanding they remove payment to Steam, while falsely claiming to them that Steam sold ch*ld abuse themed games.

As we are now, since July 15th, every business day has seen a new wave of Japanese games being removed from Steam, with more expected to be removed tomorrow. Its kind of impossible to know what games will be hit, but if the game has a theme including any kind of non or dubious consent (including hypnosis, mind-control, pheromones, coercion, assertive seduction) or inc*st themes (possibly even step-relations), it is at risk.

According to some devs, they have not been given prior notice until after their games were already removed. In the words of one publisher, "We have not yet been able to identify any clear lines on the new regulations." Indeed, there are no clear rules, but carte blanche permission for payment processors to regulate the Steam store without restriction or recourse from devs.

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What does this mean for us? I think almost all agree that payment processors choosing what we play is bad, and when it comes to censorship, many seem to believe in some sort of slippery-slope theory regarding it, but lets ask a more direct and uncomfortable question: Should we care about the immediate games that were affected by this?

One mistaken belief I see going around is that this only affects "WEG" or "renpy slop" as some say, but that's just wrong. This misconception was born because the very first wave banned (mostly) games from "EroticGamesClub", a notorious publisher on Steam known for spamming a high volume of cheap erotic games. Screenshots of the first banwave showed mostly his games, with few others included, which led to this notion that this is OK or just "cleaning up the slop" from Steam. I wish that were so.

In reality, this is mostly affecting Japanese created games. Subsequent ban waves after the first have hit almost only Japanese erotic games, and the criteria as we currently understand it will pretty much affects most Japanese erogames currently on Steam.

So to be clear, I personally do care about the individual titles and their creators. Furthermore, I care about the freedom of writers, and I want those writers to be allowed to take me to dark places, too. That is to say, I don't want anyone castrating stories or art for me under any circumstance. That is clearly what is now happening on Steam, but the affects of it are deeper and yet to be understood going into the future.

From the perspective of a Japanese developer (or any creator), the concept of Western platforms being a stable place to publish with clear rules is not there, yet they are forced by soft-power to publish on them. To not comply is a financially damning. What do I mean by that, and "soft-power"? Talking to any visual novel developer and they'll inform you that 95% of their sales come from Steam, even when many of them, like MangaGamer, have their own websites they publish from. Numbers have been like that for years now, and I imagine its much worse with many fans and native Japanese players moving onto Steam in increasing numbers each year and who've grown a reliance on the service.

But you don't even have to be a developer of adult games to see how this affects you. If the rules are amorphous, and seem to be changing all the time, subject to the whim of various corporate or activist groups, should you stop at just complying to the current rule? The safer thing to do is to self-censor a few magnitudes further in order to safeguard the game/business you've spent a considerable amount of your life making. Do you want to play games with stories that are neutered like this? Why even play a game from a foreign country if all stories need to be culturally homogenized to corporate ideals?

I'd go even further and say that to lure Japanese developers and their audience onto Steam with a promise of stable, understood guidelines, and then once they've made it their home to raze their "villages" like this, isn't just companies exercising their freedoms. It's abusive. And should have been avoided.

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What of the games themselves, and some of these themes? Should we maybe welcome some censoring of additional topics on Steam?

This is the real knitty-gritty, and what will be the major hang-up for most people. However, (speaking for myself) I want to be clear in saying that I don't think these individual titles are out of line or immoral to enjoy. Inc*st stories have been a go-to, cookie-cutter taboo theme for smut writers for hundreds of years, and there's nothing suggesting that readers of it want to manifest those situations in their lives. It's been odd seeing these exaggerated church-lady reactions to something that, quite frankly, is so mild I wonder how these people look at more than a thigh and not pass out.

I also reject the assertion that only men play these games. Dubious consent has been a sought-after theme in romance and smut fiction written by and aimed at women (and those filthy fujoshi), and its been a consistently common fantasy. I mention all of this to shine a light on the murky claims about the readers of this kind of fiction, because some would have you believe that only the twisted males enjoy (or brave like how one does a horror movie) stories dealing with non-consent. No, no matter your gender, that does not make you twisted. And rejecting them doesn't make me a virtuous person either. What defines us is way more complicated then that.

But all that aside, if we're to be honest, we know the reality is that if you let these dried up Karens or corporate dullards dictate what smut you be allowed to see... Well, you'd be gelded or stitched and watching old people do cabaret as a treat! But do you feel different, or do you think these games never should have been on Steam in the first place? Let me know.

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Knowing how we got here, we all want to know, are Valve's hands tied now? It kind of seems that way, but I've no concept of what their options are (and no shortage of those claiming they know). The more interesting question is: Do they want to comply or not? I think there's two possibilities on a spectrum here.

I think its possible Valve wants us to fight this for them, and is unable to take personal action themselves. Is there any evidence of that? Not really, other than my own thought experiments, but I based that off of the wording left on the Steam product "Onboarding" page (quoted above) which I perceive as with a hint of reluctant, but professional, compliance.

That could be completely wrong though, because its possible the opposite is true. Certainly there are those inside of Valve who are quite happy to comply with removing these kinds of games, and have been wanting to for some time, I imagine. In this other thought experiment, one could see a case where there is relief or enthusiasm to comply, but a desire to still have the benefit of publicly appearing neutral to their customers. This could just as likely explain their choice words.

Its been noted that Valve is supplying "app credits" to the affected developers to publish new games, and some take that as a sign that Valve is sympathetically not in favor of these changes. First of all, that (a ~$100 value) is a rather paltry concession, but I also don't believe that signifies any particular stance one way or another. I think it's just the bare minimum they can supply at this moment in time.

So what does Valve internally think? To me, that doesn't matter. I'm on the side of the developers of these games, and I want them to get paid for their work. And I want to buy their games, and I want stories to be unabated by cultural, religious or political norms. So those of us who care to, lets think about what can be done from here.

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First, is there anything Valve could do to assuage this situation? There are many things that I think could help.

Some think Valve should make their own payment processor, a sort of "SteamPay". I'd be interested in that, but yet-another alternative is not a solution to a thuggish monopoly being immediately endured. If it is, it will likely take decades for it to have a healing impact, but I still welcome it. The same can be said for crypto.

One approach could be that Steam allows those affected, and possibly future games with these topics, to generate an unlimited number of Steam keys and sell their games off-site, without a storepage. This was done in the past for certain retail games that were sold physically, but not on Steam. Would it be an acceptable solution for DLsite to offer Steam-keys to its customers who buy from them? I'd argue customers of these games are already accustomed to off-site patches.

I would love to see a symbiotic relationship between DLsite and Steam, but I doubt Valve would go for this, a chief reason being that Valve probably wouldn't like there being Steamgames that can't be bought directly from them, and the precedent that would set. On the other hand, maybe it would help fight the anti-trust claims currently against them? Another issue is that this doesn't help the visibility of these games, who benefit from being seen on the Steam catalog.

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What can WE do? This is the much more important question, and the one I'm most eager to ask all of you for your ideas. This next part is more of a Work-In-Progress and these are just my ideas. I'd love to be told "No, not like that", or "This is a better way". Please actively and firmly be as corrective as can be.

First of all, I think e-mailing Valve employees (Gaben's is easy enough to find) and letting them know you're disappointed with this outcome, and their response. I'm personally letting them know I understand this is a complicated and ongoing process, but I want to see an end result of this new onboarding clause being removed and the affected games rightfully reinstated.

Next, I think contacting the payment processors is a longshot, but could be a worthwhile endeavor if done well. You shouldn't just say you're disappointed and will not use their services anymore. Not that. We should tell them quite bluntly that if they continue this stupidity of infringing on people's legal rights and speech by using these thuggish tactics of financially barring people, you will make it a permanent part of your political identity to seek to have them broken up as monopolies. Tell them you believe their actions are illegal, and that you will actively seek our and press the idea to as many opportunistic law firms as you can and try to kick off a class-action suit against them. Tell them you'll support forever support any regulations against them. Below I'll post some contact information, and of these, Visa allows all members of their board, including the Chairman, to be contacted.
VISA
https://investor.visa.com/corporate-governance/contact-the-board/default.aspx#emailForm
Phone: 1-800-847-2911 OR +1-303-967-1096 (international)
Mail: c/o the Chairman, CEO, General Counsel or Corporate Secretary, P.O. Box 8999, San Francisco, CA 94128
businessconduct@visa.com
globalmedia@visa.com

MasterCard
https://b2b.mastercard.com/contact-us/
Corporate Office: 914-249-2000
Operations Center in Missouri: 636-722-6100
investor.relations@mastercard.com

Paypal
https://x.com/AskPayPal
Phone: 1-888-221-1161
Mail: PayPal Headquarters, 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131
research@paypal-experience.com
noreply@paypal-brandsfeedback.com

Most importantly(!!), those in the USA should consider contacting their Congressmen (phone or email) and tell them you want to support these bills:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/401
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/987
I would urge them to support it, and even urge them to strengthen the wording of it to put more restrictions on credit card companies, not just banks. ( How to find your congressman[www.congress.gov] )

Then, I think those in the USA should contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and file a complaint. Doing this next is good, as its the most consumer focused:
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
Phone: 1-855-411-2372
Mail: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552

Following that, submit a detailed complaint detailing the issues to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division or FTC:
Department of Justice – Antitrust Division
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
Phone: 1-855-411-2372
Mail: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552
Federal Trade Commission
https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
Phone: 1-877-382-4357
Mail: Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Response Center, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580

If I can, I'll try to post my own letters as examples in the comments, or you can use an AI to help you draft one easily.

This is not the end-all list of all that can be done, but I think its pretty darn good. However, I understand its effort. For me though, I actually do want to see credit card companies broken up, and this has already become a part of my political identity and something I will spend part of my free-time pursuing. Wouldn't it be insane if Visa or MasterCard literally got broken up all because they messed with some inc*st games on Steam? Imagine that going down in history.

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To be clear, I don't think this stops here. I don't think these are the last round of topics that will be censored. Censorship doesn't have an end-goal. I also wouldn't put it past Visa/Mastercard/Paypal/etc to eventually force Steam not only to remove certain games from sale, but to remove them from their servers (and user's libraries) as well.

Do any of you have suggestions? I want to hear them. Tomorrow I'm going to be hitting the phones and inboxes. While its not exactly fun, its an opportunity for me to do something to help the creators of games that I like, and I hope the effort yields fruit for them. This is an issue that much more directly affects doujinsoft games more than the Stop Killing Games initiative I mentioned earlier, so I hope the discussion about it is appreciated. Regardless, its good to hear from any of you, and my chat is always open (even if it says offline). Let me know what you think, or share your ideas.

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I'll admit, it can be slightly unnerving to talk about some of these things, knowing that its an invitation for people to think all kinds of stuff about you. However, I've been making an effort to be more of my authentic self to people (and awkwardly at that). Not that I've ever sought to be otherwise, but my tendency to keep things inward has more often denied my ability to be more real with you, if that makes sense. I don't think anything said here is controversial though, and I think it would be a big mistake to not talk about all of it just because of the few sordid details.

What about you guys?! Do you love your sisters as much as I love mine!? ...Anyway, I'll be in the comments and chat. Lets see how this unfolds!

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Recent information about payment processors vs Japanese game sellers:
Access to adult PC games shut down on major Japanese online retailer amidst “discussions with payment processors”[automaton-media.com]
Award-winning Japanese adult game developer directly hit by credit card restrictions as VISA payment gets suspended on their web store[automaton-media.com]
Visa Japan’s CEO says disabling card payment for legal adult content is “necessary to protect the brand” [automaton-media.com]
Adult content platform DLsite disables Visa/Mastercard payment after attempt to outsmart credit card companies [automaton-media.com]