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submitted 4 months ago by kid2908@slrpnk.net to c/games@lemmy.world

Updated: 8/1/2025 4:18 p.m. ET: In a statement to Kotaku, a spokesperson for Valve said that while Mastercard did not communicate with it directly, concerns did come through payment processor and banking intermediaries. They said payment processors rejected Valve’s current guidelines for moderating illegal content on Steam, citing Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7.

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks.  Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution.  Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

Rule 5.12.7 states, “A Merchant must not submit to its Acquirer, and a Customer must not submit to the Interchange System, any Transaction that is illegal, or in the sole discretion of the Corporation, may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks.”

It goes on, “The sale of a product or service, including an image, which is patently offensive and lacks serious artistic value (such as, by way of example and not limitation, images of nonconsensual sexual behavior, sexual exploitation of a minor, nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part, and bestiality), or any other material that the Corporation deems unacceptable to sell in connection with a Mark.”

Violations of rule 5.12.7 can result in fines, audits, or companies being dropped by the payment processors.

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[-] SheeEttin@lemmy.zip 162 points 4 months ago

"Nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part" includes just about every fighter or shooter game. They really want to have COD delisted over this?

[-] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world 40 points 4 months ago

To be fair, that would be fucking hilarious.

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago

you're missing some context in that.

"The sale of a product... which is patently offensive and lacks serious artistic value... (such as... images of... Nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part"

insert joke about COD lacking artistic value, but clearly there is more to COD than just body mutilation.

[-] SPRUNT@lemmy.world 95 points 4 months ago

"Patently offensive" and "lacks serious artistic value" are entirely subjective classifications. With those restrictions, any game with country music should be delisted.

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[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 months ago

Some kid on COD said he fucked my mom and then he called me a faggot.

[-] CocaineShrimp@sh.itjust.works 99 points 4 months ago

I don't think they realize how much worse their brands look now, after starting all this shit...

[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 33 points 4 months ago

I want to cancel ally visa and mastercard cards and never give them my business ever again after this

[-] Darkonion@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

This might just be my insomnia talking, but I thought a reasonable idea might be to call and reduce the available credit by however much is comfortable. For me, it would be fairly reasonable to reduce it by 50%. I assume they use some kind of magicians handshake to value their company based on how much potential credit is out there... Maybe it'd do nothing though. Anyone know?

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 15 points 4 months ago

You guys use them for actual credit? To me it seems that in Europe they are mostly used as a debit card directly charging your account, but compatible with the global payment processing of them.

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[-] couch1potato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 months ago

This will do nothing except hurt your own credit score as your credit utilization will be higher

[-] proudblond@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

I am not a financial guru so hopefully someone will correct me if I’m wrong about this, but your credit score is affected positively the more available credit you have. So by voluntarily lowering your available credit, you’re actually hurting yourself way more than the card companies. At least I think that’s how it works, or rather one of many factors.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Amex is still reasonably good.

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[-] filcuk@lemmy.zip 25 points 4 months ago

Does it really matter when you're a duopoly and equally bad as one another?

[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 19 points 4 months ago

Until they're not, and any competition now has the NSFW and LGBT markets to themselves

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 73 points 4 months ago

Ok furry artists, you know what to do, I wanna see the filthiest Visa x MasterCard art you can dream off. Payment process me baby

[-] puppycat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 92 points 4 months ago

not furry but someone already made mastercard-chan and visa-kun

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 26 points 4 months ago

Thats hot. And I am going to assume this is canon from now on.

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[-] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 65 points 4 months ago

Brilliant, just make your rules vague and force everyone else down the chain to self-censor. Surely this will result in the best outcome.

Fucking mastercard

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[-] Grizzlyboy@lemmy.zip 58 points 4 months ago

I love how this has damaged Mastercards brand much more than anything Valve sells. MC would rather pressure Valve for selling NSFW games, than clean up billionaires buying and trafficking children.

[-] Luouth@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Hey, Mastercard don't deal with those transactions. Too traceable! Diplomatic narcotics and crypto have less of a paper trail...

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[-] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 49 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Tl;dr: Mastercard says they didn't "force" Valve to remove nsfw games. They just told them that if they didn't remove the games that were complained about by Collective Shout, they'll block them.

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Couldn't they just block collective shout thus probably losing far less business?

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[-] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 43 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

so it was about potential brand damage that doesn’t exist? and/or has this actually brand damaged visa and mastercard more than ignoring collective shout?

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 40 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

What I see is Mastercard hiding behind their generic rules for processors and being fine with the processors taking unilateral action that could damage their brand.

Mastercard should demand they rescind the decision based on a flawed interpretation of their rules since the content IS NOT ILLEGAL where Steam provides it, or drop those processors entirely due to the brand damage their unilateral decision has caused. If Mastercard lets this sit, that signals that they agree with this decision, regardless of what they say, and they should be treated as such.

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[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 37 points 4 months ago

Fuckers are just propagating the fury without providing a fix. Are the censored games back or not? Because right now they aren't. Put them back and make Mastercard do something about it now that they have staged their position. Collective Shout is playing both sides.

[-] merdaverse@lemmy.world 31 points 4 months ago

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks. Payment processors communicated this with Valve

This whole thing reads like a telephone game where nobody wants to take any responsibility.

[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Honestly, I don't care if MasterCard doesn't want to take responsibility. It was their rule and their intermediaries that caused the situation and they did not intervene when valve tried to reach out directly.

They are responsible through action or inaction, no matter how they try to deny it.

[-] bryndos@fedia.io 6 points 4 months ago

At work when no one wants to pick up a task, I issue the "slopey shoulders" award.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/mrmen/images/1/15/Mr_cheeky1.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20170519093913

[-] dreugeworst@lemmy.ml 28 points 4 months ago

nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part

I feel like a strict reading of this rule would also put a lot of fighting games, shooters, horror games etc in the not approved category

[-] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 8 points 4 months ago

I think some christian items could also be affected, like the bible. Cane and Able, crucifixion, etc are all in that book

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[-] protogen420@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 months ago

it would put circumcision too, but the USA doesn't care

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[-] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago

Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network.

As Valve correctly points out, this is a blatant & outright lie. They have cut off any number of legal entities over pressure from politicians or groups. Now they have to own it.

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[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago

Isn't every game NSFW? Funny how language works.

[-] mx_smith@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Unless your work has been gamified. I play several games at work, one called Jira, another called GIT they aren’t super exciting but it’s a job.

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[-] bryndos@fedia.io 4 points 4 months ago

Are you suggesting "professional gamer" is not a real/worthwhile job?

[-] Natanael@infosec.pub 7 points 4 months ago

It's like being a miner, the job isn't safe for work

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[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago
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[-] TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 18 points 4 months ago

So obviously somebody is lying. I really don't understand why Valve or Itch would be the ones lying about this. My money is on the group of self righteous censorship soldiers with too much time on their hands, and the payment companies. I could always be wrong I though.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 months ago

MasterCard is so big they don't even know what all their departments are doing. The PR department probably asked a couple of the top level execs if they were pushing for this and they said no so they claimed it didn't happen.

[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

MasterCard knows exactly what they're doing.

executive leadership is varying degrees of Christian nationalist and trump supporters.

source: me, I know people.

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If nobody takes responsibility, then they should all just agree that this was a big misunderstanding and reinstate the titty games.

[-] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 8 points 4 months ago

Maybe the payment processors lied?

[-] NONE_dc@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Collective Shout says it wasn't their fault, MC and Visa say it wasn't their fault, Steam and Itch say it wasn't their fault. Conclusion? No one is to blame! No one did it! What's more, it didn't even happen!! it was all a figment of our imagination!

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[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I guess turn the boobs butts and dicks up to 10,000 then. In every game.

Its time for Gordon freeman to do unholy things with a headcrab!

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[-] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

We have seen the same behavior out of the credit card companies before. Its pretty clear that they do pressure companies to remove content they don't approve of. Its censorship and its legal since the companies are not the government. They are just tied in at a high level to the banking industry. Its a good example of how lack of regulation harms both creators and consumers.

It lets a bunch of poorly adjusted individuals force their personal mental problems on us all.

[-] regdog@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I need to know from which game that screenshot is.

For research.

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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
338 points (99.4% liked)

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