Valve Says Everything Is Now Allowed on Steam, But What Does That Mean?

Valve has been known to pull games and other media properties off its digital distribution platform, Steam, especially those that are considered particularly controversial. However, the company recently announced that it would be changing tactics on this matter. Now, it will be allowing everything on Steam except for those that are explicitly and undeniably illegal, and content that is intended to deliberately troll gamers.

The video game company made the announcement via a blog post, where it claims that it won’t be the one to decide which content will be allowed or removed from Steam going forward. This is apparently Valve’s way of returning to its root motivation for creating the platform in the first place.

“Valve shouldn't be the ones deciding this. If you're a player, we shouldn't be choosing for you what content you can or can't buy. If you're a developer, we shouldn't be choosing what content you're allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make. Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself, and to help you do it in a way that makes you feel comfortable,” the post reads.

One of the reasons why Valve might have felt it needed to make some changes was the recent removal of the game “Active Shooter,” which essentially allowed players to take on the role of a school shooter. The goal was to rack up points by shooting students and faculty members, and the more of them killed, the higher the score. Due to this aspect of the game, it was removed.

With regards to one of the reasons why a game might be pulled from Steam from now own, which Valve indicates as “straight up trolling,” the definition is still quite vague. The company did label the creator of “Active Shooter” as a troll before pulling it from the platform, The Verge reports, but perhaps a more specific set of restrictions is in order.