About selling adult games on steam.

[Raraku_Azure]

Hello, I'm an adult game creator from DLsite. I'm planning to sell my games on steam, but need to make some questions clear first.

Why adult game publishers on steam use DLCs or patches to add sexual contents to their games?
Is it allowed that an adult game stands alone without any DLCs or patches, just like on DLsite and Fanza?
If my games may not make any sense or may like a free trail before the DLCs are installed, will steam let me to sell them?
Greatly appreciate your answer.

By the way, is there any way to change the color theme of this forum? This dark theme is burning my eyes...

[Flavius Claudius Julianus]

I too am interested on these questions… for research purposes.

[MancSoulja]

I might be wrong but Developers usually add 18+ content to lots of different genres via DLC to keep the age rating of the base game as low as possible, that way a game has the largest possible audience.

[kitt]

https://partner.steamgames.com/steamdirect

[Raraku_Azure]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

I might be wrong but Developers usually add 18+ content to lots of different genres via DLC to keep the age rating of the base game as low as possible, that way a game has the largest possible audience.

If you are right, it's probably OK that I just post a pure R18 game, which is a good news for me.
Thank you, I think I can start my registrition first and see what happens.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by AustinSyu:

Why adult game publishers on steam use DLCs or patches to add sexual contents to their games?

I can only talk about Germany, but the situation in some other countries might be similar.

For starters, Steam refuses to implement an age checking mechanism beyond their usual "please confirm that you're old enough by simply clicking this 'Ok' button". They are also giving in to pressure from woke groups and are blocking a lot of "adult" content, regardless of whether it's actually required due to lack of age checking or not.

I actually own at least one the games that are still being sold here -- and they basically removed the "!8+" stuff for the Steam release. However, you can bring it back by putting an empty file with a specific name into the game directory, which is basically used to bring the 18+ content back.

Sounds stupid, but it seems to be the way to go nowadays.

[Haruspex]

I think the patches and DLCs to enable adult content in a generally adult game are kind of a throwback to the days when adult content wasn't allowed on Steam. Before the porn floodgates opened up, a few developers got around the restrictions by offering outside patches and such. You still see them because old habits die hard, even though Valve allows the content now.

[Ogami]

Basically, if you publish a pornographic game on Steam your game gets marked on the store page as "mature content".
That means it will not show up in the normal Steam store for users.
A user has to activate " adult sexual content" in their account preferences, then these games will show up on the store for them.
But that setting is turned off by default.

So many developers sell " all ages" versions of their games on the store with the adult content removed and offer free DLC or download patches on their home pages for the game.

Some also offer the non adult version cheaper on the Steam Store then the adult version costs on other store sites and sell the adult patch for a few bucks.
JAST USA does that with a lot of their titles.

As for content, Steam generally allows nearly all adult content with the exception of games that feature real people ( so no clips or pictures of real people) and games that are in a school setting. That is also no allowed for adult games, no matter how old the characters look.

[BAD *Man]

Well i see why not :) here the Rules
What you shouldn’t publish on Steam:

Hate speech, i.e. speech that promotes hatred, violence or discrimination against groups of people based on ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation

Sexually explicit images of real people

Adult content that isn’t appropriately labeled and age-gated

Libelous or defamatory statements

Content you don’t own or have adequate rights to

Content that violates the laws of any jurisdiction in which it will be available

Content that is patently offensive or intended to shock or disgust viewers

Content that exploits children in any way

Applications that modify customer’s computers in unexpected or harmful ways, such as malware or viruses

Applications that fraudulently attempts to gather sensitive information, such as Steam credentials or financial data (e.g. credit card information)

Video content not directly related to a product that has shipped on Steam.

Non-interactive 360 VR Videos

Applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs.

[ガズダ]

ok

[davidb11]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Originally posted by AustinSyu:

Why adult game publishers on steam use DLCs or patches to add sexual contents to their games?

I can only talk about Germany, but the situation in some other countries might be similar.

For starters, Steam refuses to implement an age checking mechanism beyond their usual "please confirm that you're old enough by simply clicking this 'Ok' button". They are also giving in to pressure from woke groups and are blocking a lot of "adult" content, regardless of whether it's actually required due to lack of age checking or not.

I actually own at least one the games that are still being sold here -- and they basically removed the "!8+" stuff for the Steam release. However, you can bring it back by putting an empty file with a specific name into the game directory, which is basically used to bring the 18+ content back.

Sounds stupid, but it seems to be the way to go nowadays.

I'm not sure why you're making up stuff about Steam here.
That's not cool.

That's not how Steam works at all, and they most certainly did not give into any woke people.
Germany's rules don't even make sense, and that's why Steam didn't agree with them.

Please don't post misinformation.

[Sleepy Yoshi]

To sum it up, Steam doesn't give a crap as long as the content's not illegal and is marked appropriately.

[davidb11]

Originally posted by Sleepy Yoshi:

To sum it up, Steam doesn't give a crap as long as the content's not illegal and is marked appropriately.

Yep. Exactly.
That's how it works.

[crunchyfrog]

Yeah it's likely simple marketing and convenience.

Remeber you're selling to international markets, where circumstances differ drastically.

So is it easier to divvy up and make several different versions of a game for release in several different regions, or simply make a cut down one that is acceptable for all (or most) then offer th rest as DLC?

I'd say it's pretty obvious isn't it?

Add to that the fact that ratings are a key thing. ANY Game that has an 18 rating traditionaly gets lower sales just because of that, so it's something that generally gets avoided.

In short, it's a simple trick to make things as simple as possible for you and the customers.

[Raraku_Azure]

If steam doesn't give a crap as long as my game is marked as r18, I will just take the rating as a "penalty" this time, and try to avoid it in the futrue.

Thank you all very much, Really helpful.

[Юрий Петухов]

Originally posted by AustinSyu:

If steam doesn't give a crap as long as my game is marked as r18, I will just take the rating as a "penalty" this time, and try to avoid it in the futrue.

Thank you all very much, Really helpful.

Hi there,

please be so kind and accept my friend request. I want to discuss some issues about game's publishing.

Thanks.