'Dangerous on a whole new level'—while Steam's policy change is new, the shadow of credit card porn-hibition has been looming for a while, with Nier: Automata's Yoko Taro sounding the alarm last year

NieR creator Yoko Taro in his trademark Emil mask from the games.

Last week was a weird one for videogames—with Steam clamping down on games featuring adult content due to the pressure of credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard which, apparently, was itself a decision made due to an Australian anti-porn group.

But this isn't a new phenomenon. Back in 2021, Mastercard began a policy forcing adult websites to go through stringent requirements that were, logistically, impossible to keep up with. In Japan, Visa's also been coming down on doujinshi and manga archives to, quote, "protect the brand", as stated in a briefing last year.