{"id":51397,"date":"2025-08-27T14:12:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=51397"},"modified":"2025-08-27T14:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:14:17","slug":"steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/","title":{"rendered":"Steam adult game programmer has account frozen by PayPal,\u00a0\u00a380,000 in earnings withheld"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Steam game programmer claims that PayPal has frozen all of their funds due to alleged violation of the financial platform\u2019s terms of service. Around \u00a380,000 GBP in proceeds were withheld as a result of the programmer\u2019s involvement in the development of adult games (as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2025\/08\/26\/156456.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game*Spark<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier last month, users were reporting that PayPal payments in certain currencies had been suspended on Steam. According to the official<a href=\"https:\/\/help.steampowered.com\/en\/faqs\/view\/731C-13C7-7D04-A11E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Steam Support page<\/a>, PayPal reached out to Valve around July 2025, explaining that the bank that handles their payment transactions in certain currencies was immediately terminating the processing of any transactions related to Steam. While no concrete reasons were given for the sudden suspension of the transactions, users suspect that PayPal\u2019s actions are likely related to the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-rules-updated-to-prohibit-content-that-violates-rules-set-forth-by-payment-processors-and-banks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent wave of crackdowns on adult games<\/a> across many digital distribution platforms, with Steam being most prominently affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-513970001.jpg\" alt=\"Steam\" class=\"wp-image-51401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-513970001.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-513970001-380x214.jpg 380w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Amidst these intensifying restrictions, a UK programmer reached out for legal advice on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/LegalAdviceUK\/comments\/1mzsj8l\/i_owe_a_massive_corporation_tax_bill_to_hmrc_and\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reddit<\/a> when all of their assets earned through game development for a game published on Steam were frozen by PayPal. According to the Reddit post, PayPal refused to release any of the payments the programmer received for working on a game after determining that the game was adult-oriented. The programmer claims that the game was developed under perfectly legal circumstances and that it does not contain any elements that could potentially violate UK laws. On top of that, the actual sales of the game are not being processed through PayPal, which means none of the programmer\u2019s assets come directly from customers buying the adult content. However, PayPal still argued it constituted breach of their terms of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the platform\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/us\/legalhub\/paypal\/acceptableuse-full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Acceptable Use Policy<\/a>, PayPal does not allow their services to be used for transactions related to \u201ccertain sexually oriented materials or services.\u201d While transactions for certain physical sexually oriented goods are allowed only in the U.S, according to PayPal\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/us\/cshelp\/article\/what-is-paypal%E2%80%99s-policy-on-transactions-that-involve-sexually-oriented-goods-and-services-help384\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> sexual goods and services policy<\/a>, transactions for digital goods or content delivered through a digital medium are forbidden worldwide. In an additional clause, PayPal listed their criteria for determining what \u201csexually oriented goods and services\u201d are \u2013 implying that their decisions in restricting content are made on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"626\" height=\"179\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-513970002.jpg\" alt=\"PayPal's criteria for determining &quot;sexually oriented goods and services.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-51402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-513970002.jpg 626w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-513970002-380x109.jpg 380w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>PayPal&#8217;s criteria for determining &#8220;sexually oriented goods and services.&#8221;<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Apparently, this isn\u2019t the programmer\u2019s first time having legal problems with payment processors. As they state in one of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/LegalAdviceUK\/comments\/1mzsj8l\/comment\/naldjs6\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reddit comments<\/a>, they have had their business closed multiple times due to the nature of the content they create \u2013 both by major banks and multiple \u201capp banks\u201d like Wise and Revolut. Their reason for resorting to PayPal as means of facilitating transactions in the first place was because they tried to avoid the risk of getting debanked again. However, as PayPal has refused to release their assets for more than a month now, the programmer says they are trying to search for another solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PayPal froze \u00a380,000 of a Steam programmer&#8217;s earnings because of their involvement in developing adult games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":51399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-51397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Steam adult game programmer has account frozen by PayPal,\u00a0\u00a380,000 in earnings withheld - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PayPal froze \u00a380,000 of a Steam programmer&#039;s earnings because of their involvement in developing adult games.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steam adult game programmer has account frozen by PayPal,\u00a0\u00a380,000 in earnings withheld - 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AUTOMATON WEST","description":"PayPal froze \u00a380,000 of a Steam programmer's earnings because of their involvement in developing adult games.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Steam adult game programmer has account frozen by PayPal,\u00a0\u00a380,000 in earnings withheld - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"PayPal froze \u00a380,000 of a Steam programmer's earnings because of their involvement in developing adult games.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-08-27T05:12:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-27T05:14:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1076,"height":527,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-51397-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0110or\u0111e P","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0110or\u0111e P","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/"},"author":{"name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696"},"headline":"Steam adult game programmer has account frozen by PayPal,\u00a0\u00a380,000 in earnings withheld","datePublished":"2025-08-27T05:12:56+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-27T05:14:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/"},"wordCount":500,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250827-51397-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Global)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/steam-adult-game-programmer-has-account-frozen-by-paypal-80000-in-earnings-withheld\/","name":"Steam adult game programmer has account frozen by PayPal,\u00a0\u00a380,000 in earnings withheld - 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