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Steam Thinks You Should Curate Its Expanding Library Your Damn Self

Offended? Now you have the tools to fix it. 

Brittany Vincent

June 6, 2018 2:40 PM

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Steam has been fighting the good fight as long as we can remember when it comes to keeping certain types of objectionable content off of the platform. It looks like that fight has come to an end, as Steam has smartly opted to reduce the stringent content restrictions from the platform and will be welcoming content that features just about, well, everything.

A new blog from Valve's Erik Johnson posted to Steam confirms what we've all known for some time: Steam is massive, and it's difficult to keep everyone satisfied at all times with the current content restrictions in place. No matter what you do, someone is going to be offended by something, whether it's a nipple here or violence there. And while some titles are more overtly offensive on purpose and looking for a reaction, there are droves of titles that some wish to see removed from the service simply because they don't align with their ideologies.

Steam's solution is to let its users sort out their own content and hide what they don't wish to see on the platform, in a move that comes as quite a shock.

“We’ve decided that the right approach is to allow everything onto the Steam Store, except for things that we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling,” said Johnson. “Taking this approach allows us to focus less on trying to police what should be on Steam, and more on building those tools to give people control over what kinds of content they see.”

"If you’re a developer of offensive games, this isn’t us siding with you against all the people you’re offending,” said Johnson. “There will be people throughout the Steam community who hate your games, and hope you fail to find an audience, and there will be people here at Valve who feel exactly the same way. However, offending someone shouldn’t take away your game’s voice. We believe you should be able to express yourself like everyone else, and to find others who want to play your game. But that’s it.”

The blog post states that the team will be working on this "for the foreseeable" future, though there isn't a set date, apparently, when this policy will take effect.

Brittany Vincent

Senior Editor

Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, Brittany is a Senior Editor at Shacknews who thrives on surrealism and ultraviolence. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake and check out her portfolio for more. Like a fabulous shooter once said, get psyched!