Nighthawks, the long-in-development vampire RPG due to be released later this month, is the latest game to run afoul of Steam’s increasingly stringent rules regarding adult content. According to publisher Wadjet Eye Games, the game has been labelled ‘Adults Only’—causing it to be removed from Steam search and outright delisted in certain countries like Germany—despite claims from both developer and publisher that the RPG’s depictions of sex and nudity are very mild.
“We are aware that Steam has classified Nighthawks as an adult game and has excluded it from searches,” Wadjet Eye boss Dave Gilbert wrote on Bluesky. “We are working on it. Valve is under the impression that this game is way sexier than it actually is.” Gilbert further commented that “Valve is basically treating Nighthawks like a porn game!” in responding to a reply to his initial post.
A game being labelled Adults Only can affect its visibility in several ways. Adults Only games will not appear in Steam searches by default, requiring users to log in, verify their age (which requires the use of a credit card in some countries) and adjust their preferred content settings before they become visible. In addition, the label can cause games to be delisted outright in certain countries.
Luckily GOG isn’t affected at this stage.
Oh but it is. As a german I can tell you that a lot of adult themed games are not available in germany. It is “fun”, they send me advertising Mails with this games, but when I try to open the links then nothing is there only a redirect to the store homepage.
That’s the garden variety censorship though, right? Your government deciding no one should be allowed access, not just restricting access behind mandatory state sanctioned identity theft like some of the more “Enlightened” countries have.
Because it’s too small so nobody cares about it. If it ever approaches the type of market penetration Steam has, they’ll be getting the same pressures from the puritans too.
I think the normies just find the niche hard to appreciate. People don’t think about things like ownership and DRM until they are forced to.