Steam Users Take the Fight to Visa After Adult Game Purge

In the wake of Steam and itch.io being forced to delist a slew of adult-only video games, users are now taking the fight directly to the source of the problem: the payment processors themselves. Instead of just yelling into the void on forums, a contingent of gamers is organizing to directly contact financial giant Visa, calling out what they describe as a massive and dangerous overreach into online commerce.

The Slippery Slope Becomes a Cliff

This whole mess kicked off about two weeks ago when Steam quietly updated its publisher guidelines on July 16, 2025, to prohibit content that violates the rules of its payment processors. Valve later clarified in a statement that they were essentially strong-armed into the decision, retiring the games because the "loss of payment methods would prevent customers from being able to purchase other titles and game content on Steam". This led to an immediate purge of games with certain explicit themes. Just days later, indie storefront itch.io confirmed it was facing the same pressure, proving this was an industry-wide squeeze play, not a simple policy change from Valve.

Moral Arbiters with Transaction Fees

Let's be clear about what’s actually happening here. This isn't really about a handful of questionable games on Steam. The real story is that financial institutions like Visa and Mastercard are appointing themselves as the moral arbiters of the entire internet. They are leveraging their critical position in the digital economy to dictate what legal products can and cannot be sold, pressuring storefronts to comply with vague, "morally-grounded" rules or risk financial ruin. It’s a dangerous precedent that puts unaccountable corporations in charge of censorship.

"A Sternly Worded Letter"

In response, users on the r/Steam subreddit are coordinating a campaign to flood Visa's customer service with a pre-written letter. The message calls out the company for its "massive overreach into controlling what entirely legal actions/purchases customers are allowed to put their money towards" and threatens to switch to competing card companies if the "Draconian impositions are not reversed".

Visa's Masterclass in Bullshit

For its part, Visa has already started issuing what appears to be a boilerplate response, and it's a masterclass in corporate doublespeak. In a statement shared by one user, Visa claims it is "committed to protecting legal commerce" and that its policy is to process any legal transaction. The company explicitly states, "We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers".

This, of course, is in direct contradiction to their actions that forced the removal of legal games from digital shelves. As one user on Reddit so bluntly put it, that statement is "an actual legitimate lie".

It’s impossible to say if a letter-writing campaign will have any real impact on a financial behemoth like Visa. But the coordinated pushback shows that gamers are seeing this for what it is. The battle isn't just about who gets to buy horny video games; it's about who gets to control the free market—the consumers and storefronts, or the payment processors who have decided they know best.