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Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

pcgamer.com

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Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#31

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #12
ranger_danger wrote: post #3

What can be done to loosen card companies' grip on this? It has been a constant problem now for decades.

Likely nothing. The simple fact is, Visa/MC don't want to deal with porn because the number of chargebacks and fraud from porn purchases is significant and a huge outlier compared to most other charges. Their crusade against processing charges for adult material isn't about purity, it's simply business.

I doubt it. If that were the case, I think they would only be complaining to Valve about the number of chargebacks issued from the Steam store. Not about genres-that-are-correlated-with-chargebacks-in-other-contexts.

Given Valve's generous refund policies, and the fact that a steam store purchase on your credit card statement looks quite innocent, and that the credit card companies didn't complain to Valve about chargebacks but about content, my guess is there are hardly any chargebacks, and this is just about moral purity.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#32

Post by nottorp »

kevingadd wrote: post #11

It's interesting that Valve sort of put themselves in this situation by opting not to police their store anymore. I'm personally a fan of fewer restrictions on content in video games and fewer "gatekeepers" but it's kind of inevitable that people would get upset when you chose to allow people to sell games like "Sex With Hitler" and "Pimp Life: Sex Simulator". Deciding to allow that content on your store and simultan…

The question is: has "kill in the name of Hitler" also been banned, or is that okay with Visa/MC?

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#33

Post by IshKebab »

blibble wrote: post #4

if I was doing a couple of billion a year in transactions then the payment processor would be told where to shove it

A couple of billion is an insignificant fraction of the $10000bn MasterCard processes every year.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#34

Post by AIPedant »

astura wrote: post #8
timpera wrote: post #2

Considering their volume, I find it hard to believe that Valve couldn't find another, more lenient payment processor with similar fees.

Adult content has a high chargeback rate and high fraud rates so payment processing for adult content has higher fees.

The fact that these were specifically incest games makes me think a title was somehow involved in distributing CSAM, which is often why Visa/MC crack down on porn websites.

But it is possible that Visa sensibly and correctly said "anyone who makes or purchases such a game is a despicable scumbag, and we shouldn't assume the financial risk of dealing with them."

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#35

Post by jowea »

david38 wrote: post #24
giancarlostoro wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which makes less sense when you consider Steam will refund you game if you dont want it.

I don’t think you understand what’s being said. He’s not talking about the ability to refund

But is there a good reason to do a chargeback if you can easily refund it? Yes if someone stole the CC and used it buy something on Steam, but is that the concern or that someone buys something with a CC on their own account, and then chargebacks instead of refunding?

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#36

Post by Hemospectrum »

wmf wrote: post #21
timpera wrote: post #2

Considering their volume, I find it hard to believe that Valve couldn't find another, more lenient payment processor with similar fees.

It complicates things to have some games that can be purchased with credit cards and some games that can only be purchased with crypto.

If they continued to carry any of the games that were singled out for removal by Visa and Mastercard, they would not be able to accept credit card payments for anything else in their store. This same drama has played out the same way with countless other online services.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#37

Post by slaw »

bobsmooth wrote: post #6
timpera wrote: post #2

Considering their volume, I find it hard to believe that Valve couldn't find another, more lenient payment processor with similar fees.

There are no other payment processors.

There are national issuers like JCB or UnionPay.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#38

Post by neuroelectron »

astura wrote: post #8
timpera wrote: post #2

Considering their volume, I find it hard to believe that Valve couldn't find another, more lenient payment processor with similar fees.

Adult content has a high chargeback rate and high fraud rates so payment processing for adult content has higher fees.

You need to be more specific. Conflating "adult content" with porn is both problematic is masks the real issue. A large majority of games Valve sells are adult content. But as you can imagine grand theft auto is not causing a lot of political backlash, despite the objectionable content.

Re: Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

#40

Post by drexlspivey »

edm0nd wrote: post #20
gorwell wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could support a stablecoin like USDC and start pushing people to that. No censorship and lower fees. Valve broke ground with Steam, they could do it again.

nah. USDC funds can be frozen by Circle on demand/request.

You wouldn’t be buying or holding any USDC in your account. It would be invisible to you
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