Since the anti-porn crusaders Collective Shout pressured payment processors to get adult games removed from storefronts, things have been rough in the world of eroge development. (Eroge being short for "erotic game", he wrote, feeling like your dad explaining how babies are made.) Now, a developer at Crimson Delight has claimed they can't add new adult content to their existing adult game on Steam unless it's as DLC. (Via Automaton.)
"From what I know," they wrote on Reddit, "prior to the whole Collective Shout situation, adult games could add NSFW content even post-launch. But during the review process we were informed this was no longer the case. I have to say the reviewer was kind and forthcoming, we didn't feel threatened or bullied in any way, and we got the feeling they were trying to do their best to help devs navigate the process. But the fact of the matter is that Valve has payment processors breathing down their neck, and the rules keep getting stricter as time goes on."
Normally updates to existing games on Steam don't have to be reviewed, which makes it possible for all those convenient hotfixes to go live in a timely fashion. (Even on consoles, where the platform owner certifies updates before they're approved, developers have the option to take on liability for any issues that arise if they need to rush out an urgent patch.) Changing that process just for adult games wouldn't be feasible, and so reframing them as separate DLC, which has to pass the same review process as a new game, must have seemed like the only solution.
In the world of adult games, piecemeal development is the norm. Games like Summertime Saga frequently add new characters and storylines in response to community demand, and switching that kind of freeform development to a DLC model, where each addition has to be complete before it's published, would be a significant change to the way many eroge developers work.
Crimson Light doesn't blame Valve for this change. "They could've simply nuked the 18+ section of Steam," they go on to say, "but they didn't, they stuck up for developers. Obviously adult games make Valve money, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of Steam's catalogue. Silksong itself probably earned Valve more than most NSFW titles put together."
Before you point out how this situation could be bypassed if Steam allowed payments in cryptocurrency, it's worth pointing out that Valve experimented with that back in 2016, but shut it down because of the amount of fraud. "50% of those transactions were fraudulent," Gabe Newell said at the time, "which is a mind-boggling number."
