Steam’s last-minute ban of R18 visual novel attracts criticism of unclear ruling 

The developer of Order Us!, an R18 visual novel, has announced that the game was banned by Steam 3 days before its release. The reason given was that the game appears to contain sexual content involving an underage character. This case has highlighted both Steam’s strengthened rules on adult-oriented games as well as stirring up criticism of Steam’s apparent rejection of resubmissions. 

The adult-oriented visual novel uses a similar graphic style to Japanese bishoujo games, featuring female characters depicted in an anime style with large eyes. According to the developer Argent’s posts on X, Order Us! was scheduled to be released on March 1 and a demo build had previously been approved without any issues. However, Argent reports that they received the following message from Steam on February 27 stating that the game had been banned.  

The reason given by Steam, according to the screenshot posted by Argent, was that the game seems “in our judgement, to depict sexual conduct with a minor.” Reflecting on this assessment, Argent inferred that they were probably referring to a character called Mocha. In their X post, the developer declared that the character was 19 years old and not a high school student. Argent added that Steam’s representative might have thought that the character was underage due to her flat-chest and short height, declaring that it is “heartbreaking that a realistic body type has to be avoided when working with Steam” and “I’m never making a small-breasted character again.”

According to Argent’s post on Reddit, Steam refused to provide details as to exactly what content in the game had led to the decision to ban it, and would not allow the developer to resubmit a modified version of the game.  

Many commenters on Argent’s X and Reddit posts criticized Steam for apparently not specifying the exact content that led to the ban nor giving the developer the chance to resubmit an altered version of the game. 

However, Steam clearly states in their message to the developer that they will not tolerate any “grey area” when it comes to depictions of sexual conduct that involves a character that could be interpreted as underage. Despite this, there is no shortage of adult-oriented romance visual novels and bishoujo games that feature characters who sometimes wear school uniform or whose appearance could be construed as having child-like features due to anime art styles. This can be seen in some older games in the genre, like the high school-set Sabbat of the Witch, which were released on Steam before their rules became stricter on ambiguity regarding characters’ ages in games with R18 nude or sexual content. Argent’s case highlights the need for developers of adult-oriented games to make sure there is no gray area regarding the age of such characters if they want the game to be available on Steam.