Steam’s Adult-Content Crackdown Is Escalating — Early Access Rejections, PayPal Freezes £80K, and Credit‑Card Age Checks

Steam’s crackdown on adult-content games has continued to affect developers and players, with recent rejections from Valve, payment holds from processors, and new age‑verification rules in the U.K. creating practical roadblocks for some creators and customers.

Valve has rejected Early Access applications for adult‑themed games.
Payment processors including PayPal have withheld or restricted accounts tied to adult games.
The U.K.’s Online Safety Act is driving age‑verification measures that affect how users access adult content on Steam.

What Valve is changing

Developers report that Steam has recently *stopped approving* some games for Early Access if the titles contain “mature themes.” For example, Valve lists Heavy Hearts on Steam as “coming soon,” but the developers say their Early Access application was rejected by Valve.

https://twitter.com/GalewindG/status/1961949585254826238

Similarly, the team behind The Restoration of Aphrodisia says Valve rejected its Early Access application. The developers pointed out that Steam’s public documentation does not clearly ban this type of content from Early Access, and that other adult games remain in the program.

The Restoration of Aphrodisia developers say the rejection surprised them.

Payment processors and withheld funds

Separately, a developer on Reddit went viral after saying PayPal was withholding £80,000 in earnings made from an adult game sold on Steam. The developer wrote that PayPal told them they had violated PayPal’s terms of service and that they have spent weeks trying to recover the money.

“I’ve had my business accounts closed down by 3 major high street banks and rejected by almost every ‘app bank’ like Wise, Revolut, etc,” the developer wrote on Reddit.

Those problems followed earlier pressure from payment networks. Companies such as Visa and Mastercard were cited in reporting as putting pressure on platforms over adult games, and PayPal has also reduced its availability in some countries that do business on Steam, which PayPal directly attributes in its statements to the wider adult‑games situation.

One developer described the cumulative effect directly: “We don’t make anything illegal, but when almost every bank is collectively saying ‘we don’t do business with you if you make content X or Y,’ then the content almost becomes functionally illegal.”

U.K. age verification and platform changes

In the U.K., Steam introduced an age‑verification step before allowing users to view adult content, a move linked to the Online Safety Act. Steam’s current implementation asks users to verify age using a credit card, and it does not accept debit cards for this check.

Some users and observers have highlighted practical issues with the credit‑card requirement, noting that not everyone has or can get a credit card. One Reddit thread quoted users saying the step is burdensome and could exclude certain groups, including students.

Other platforms have used different verification methods. For instance, Discord briefly required U.K. users to upload a photo of themselves for age checks, and some users demonstrated ways to bypass that verification with images from video games.

PCGamesN reported on Steam’s age verification, and PC Gamer covered Discord’s verification bypasses.

Wider political and advocacy context

Advocacy groups and political initiatives are part of the background to these changes. Collective Shout, an activist group, publicly campaigned with payment processors about material on Steam and celebrated the removal of titles earlier in the year.

Additionally, Project 2025 — a policy plan from The Heritage Foundation that received media attention — includes recommendations about placing liability on companies for pornographic material. Critics and observers have pointed to those ideas as part of a broader push that could increase pressure on platforms and payment processors.

Russell Vought, who co‑authored Project 2025, said in 2024: “We’ve got a number of states that are passing this […] and the porn company then says ‘We’re not doing business in your state’, which is, of course, entirely what we’re after. We’re doing it from the backdoor, starting with the kids. We would have a national ban on pornography if we could.”

TheGamer reported on Project 2025 links to platform policy shifts, and CBS News examined Project 2025 proposals.

What has been documented so far

To summarize the concrete developments documented by developers and outlets:

Valve has rejected Early Access submissions for at least two adult‑themed projects despite those projects appearing on Steam.
At least one developer reported PayPal withholding a large sum linked to an adult game sale, and other developers report banking restrictions.
Steam’s U.K. age verification uses credit‑card checks, which some users say will exclude people without credit cards.
Advocacy groups and policy proposals are cited as influencing payment processors and platform decisions.

Key links and sources

Primary posts and reporting referenced above include the Steam store listing for Heavy Hearts, the developer’s X post:

https://twitter.com/GalewindG/status/1961949585254826238

and the Bluesky post about The Restoration of Aphrodisia. Coverage of payment and verification issues includes reporting and posts on Reddit, such as a developer thread about PayPal and earnings on Reddit.

For policy context, see the U.K. government’s explainer on the Online Safety Act and analyses of Project 2025 from TheGamer and CBS News.