Steam is one of the world's largest digital distribution platforms for video games. For millions of players, developers, and families, it serves as a central marketplace for discovering, purchasing, and playing games.

This petition asks Valve to stop distributing games whose primary purpose is sexually explicit pornographic content through the Steam storefront.

This request is not an attempt to prohibit adult entertainment generally or prevent adults from accessing lawful material elsewhere. It concerns the type of content Valve chooses to distribute through Steam and the identity of Steam as a mainstream video game marketplace.

Over time, Steam's catalog has expanded to include games centered primarily on explicit sexual activity. Content filters and age warnings can reduce unwanted exposure, but they do not address the underlying question of whether a mainstream gaming marketplace should distribute explicitly pornographic products at all.

We believe Valve should draw that boundary.

We call on Valve to:

1. Establish a storefront policy prohibiting games whose primary purpose is the depiction or simulation of explicit sexual activity for sexual gratification.
2. Create clear criteria distinguishing prohibited pornographic products from games that contain sexual themes, nudity, mature storytelling, or incidental sexual content.
3. Apply those standards consistently to new submissions and existing products.
4. Provide developers with transparent guidelines and an appeals process when a game is rejected or removed under the policy.
5. Continue allowing legitimate mature games that contain adult themes without being primarily pornographic.
6. Maintain strong age controls and content disclosures for mature sexual content that remains permitted under Steam's policies.

This distinction is important. A game should not be removed merely because it contains nudity, depicts sexuality, addresses mature relationships, or is inappropriate for children. Mature artistic expression has long existed within video games.

The proposed restriction concerns products principally designed around explicit sexual content.

Private companies routinely establish boundaries concerning what they will distribute even when the excluded material is otherwise lawful. We are asking Valve to establish such a boundary for Steam.

Adults would remain free to seek lawful adult entertainment through services dedicated to that material. Developers would remain free to create lawful adult products and distribute them through appropriate channels.

Steam, however, does not have to serve as one of those channels.

We ask Valve to return the focus of the Steam storefront to video games and interactive entertainment that do not primarily function as pornography.