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The pubertal sex simulation "House Party" has not been available in Germany for a long time - at least via Steam
Photo: Eek!
Games
In 2019, sex and porn games seemed to be on their way into the gaming mainstream: The online platform Steam then offered a range of 3D sex simulations, which brought such niche titles worldwide attention.
This trend has now stopped for the time being - at least in Germany.
If you call up Steam's shop pages for titles such as the comparatively well-known »Subverse«, you will no longer see pictures of half-naked aliens.
On the largest portal for the digital purchase of PC games, the category of "adult only" games has been completely blocked since the end of December.
Steam gives users from Germany the following message when they play a game: »Oops, Sorry!
An error occurred while processing your request: This content is not permitted in your country. «
The wording is not really accurate.
Steam's operating company Valve implies a government ban.
It was Valve itself that restricted its offer in order to respond to a complaint from the Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein media authority.
It was not the first time that this criticized the free accessibility of pornographic content on Steam.
So what exactly happened?
Lots of questions, hardly any answers
There is no official statement from Valve, not even when asked by SPIEGEL.
"We are currently examining the possibility of making this content available to our customers in Germany," explains Steam support.
Until then, all games that are marked as "sexual content" by their developers would no longer be offered.
This approach probably explains why the blocking offensive is not working properly.
In some cases, games with pornographic content can still be accessed.
Titles that have received an age rating from the USK were also spared from a ban, as the support from Steam notes.
Meanwhile, alleged state censorship is being discussed on Reddit.
The fact that such speculation occurs is also due to the lack of official information.
As with Valve, the Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein media authority has not yet issued a statement.
It also remains unclear how many erotic titles are exactly affected.
Even developers of popular games such as "Subverse" or "House Party" did not find out about the ban on their titles from Valve or youth protection agencies, but only from amazed fans in Germany.
The lockdown was avoidable
Valve's approach is nothing new.
At the beginning of the year, Steam blocked individual titles such as "Super Naughty Maid" in Germany.
The media authority Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein had taken the coverage of sex games at the time as an opportunity to carry out targeted tests.
The increased attention that came with the release on Steam also became a problem for the sex games.
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Scene from "Subverse": The porn parody raised almost two million dollars on Kickstarter, but it is currently not available for purchase on Steam
Photo: Studio FOW
The media authority criticized sexual representations that were rated as pornographic: It wasn't about the games themselves, but about the screenshots on the respective Steam info pages.
According to a press spokeswoman for the media company, improvements have been suggested at Valve, whose German headquarters are in Hamburg.
Because anyone who makes pornographic content publicly available in Germany is committing an administrative offense under the State Treaty on the Protection of Minors.
The result can be fines of up to half a million euros.
In principle, it is possible to offer pornographic content as long as appropriate youth protection measures are observed.
For example, Steam could introduce an age verification system recognized by the Commission for the Protection of Young People in the Media (KJM), which ensures that content harmful to minors is only accessible to so-called "closed user groups".
This means that Steam must ensure that only users of legal age see them.
If the platform were to verify the age of its customers using a procedure such as Postident, it could include the "adult only" category in Germany again.
JusProg does not replace age verification
Porn games like "Subverse" or "Super Naughty Maid" are labeled as harmful to minors in the protection of minors.
Less strict measures need to be taken for non-pornographic content that is potentially harmful to young people and is rated as 16 or 18 years of age.
The strict checking of closed user groups as with pornography is not necessary for this.
Those who offer such content are only allowed to display it at night or have to make their website compatible with a youth protection program such as JusProg.
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If you install JusProg, not all age-appropriate games are filtered on Steam: Like other gaming portals, the platform is completely blocked
Photo: JusProg
JusProg filters websites according to age groups and, in addition to their own lists, relies on the providers' self-labeling.
Steam is completely labeled as "over 18 years of age" and can therefore not be accessed by children and young people.
In practice, titles like »Cyberpunk 2077« are treated in the same way as »Football Manager 2021«, which is approved for ages 0 and up.
However, the future of JusProg is unclear.
The self-regulation organization FSM and the KJM have been arguing in court about the recognition of the software since last year.
Should the KJM have further complaints and JusProg is no longer considered a suitable youth protection program, Steam would probably have to find a new solution for non-pornographic games as well.
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The self-declared life simulation »AI ＊ Shoujo« shows explicit sex if you have installed an uncut patch.
Despite the ban, you can still buy it on Steam
Photo: Illusion
A more differentiated filtering is technically possible with the age-de.xml standard, which JusProg also uses.
To do this, website operators must also implement them.
An effort that Valve evidently avoids just as much as a real age verification, although the USK's age labels are already displayed on Steam.
“Some time ago we pointed out these possibilities to a youth protection representative from Steam,” says Stefan Schellenberg, the chairman of JusProg eV, when asked.
"Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, none of this has yet been implemented."
Partly questionable titles
Valve's range of porn games is not only criticized in Germany.
Because among the games there are some that contain fantasies that glorify violence and are misogynistic.
The suspicion of child pornography was also already in the room given some hentai games.
Since Valve usually does not check the content of new releases, the company removes even extremely questionable titles such as "Rape Day" if only under pressure from outside.
In view of the impending regulation, Valve has apparently not yet made any differentiated proposed solutions.
Instead, the portal prefers to block content with a sledgehammer, as it does now at the end of December.
The fact that the Steam bans even hit game developers unexpectedly shows how dependent they are on the platform and their decisions.
For some blocked titles like »Subverse«, Steam is the only distribution channel so far.
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"Gal * Gun 2" was initially indexed in Germany because of its young anime protagonists.
The game is now approved for ages 18+.
It is still available on Steam
Photo: Inti Creates
Some developers are therefore resigned - and prefer to take their sales opportunities into their own hands.
An employee of Denpasoft, the publisher of "Super Naughty Maid", says that they are already working on designing their own website for Germany in accordance with youth protection regulations.
So you no longer have to rely on Steam.
Icon: The mirror