Many games on Steam have adult themes and need to be la beled accordingly.
Over 14,000 new games were published on Steam in 2023, and in 2024 almost 3,00 new releases expanded the catalog of Valve’s gaming platform. Of course, in this flood of games there are always titles that are not suitable for all age groups.
Since 2023, Steam, like other providers of games, films or series, has been obliged to provide content with an age rating. But as the Federal Agency for the Protection of Children and Young People in the Media (BzKJ) has now made it clear to Valve, this regulation applies not only to newly published games, but also to the entire Steam range.
What’s happening now?
On Steam A note was published to all developers in which is called upon to make up for the age classification if necessary. Otherwise it would apparently no longer be possible to offer the corresponding game in Europey:
As a result, we are obliged to only offer games for sale in Europey that have either gone through the evaluation process integrated into Steam or have been evaluated by the Europe rating agency USK.
Steam has one for checking whether a game has the required rating own page furnished. Arguably the easiest way to catch up on content ratings is through Steam’s rating process.
The developers simply have to fill out a questionnaire, on the basis of which an age classification is then determined. The intern can probably do that.
13:12
These are the record holders on Steam! The 14 games with the most concurrent users
What if a game continues to be unranked? Valve makes it pretty clear that the age rating for the unimpaired
Selling in Europey is unavoidable.
Since Steam apparently wants to adhere to the interpretation of the Youth Protection Act formulated by the Federal Center, it is also quite possible that games will be removed from sale in this country at some point. Of course, games that have already been purchased remain in your library
Despite competitors like the Epic Games Store, Steam is still one of the most important platforms for PC games today. Just two days ago, more players were online at the same time than ever before. Newly published titles also played a part in this, you can find out more about this in the news linked above.
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