Erik Johnson from Valve released a new statement regarding Steam Store content policies, following warnings to visual novel makers on Steam last month that were later retracted.
Johnson reaffirmed that everything will be allowed on the Steam Store, except for things that are illegal, or are straight up trolling. Valve will also stop policing content on Steam, and instead focus on building tools to give people control over what they want to see, which will hide games with content players don’t want to see, even if it is on the recommendation algorithm. There will also be new tools for developers as well to help deal with harassment.
As laws vary worldwide, Steam will adopt a policy where developers will need to disclose any potentially problematic content during submission, or risk Steam ceasing doing business with them.
Overall, this means that yes, visual novels and everything are to stay, even if some people don’t like it. However, the games allowed onto Steam Store will not be reflective of Valve’s values. Finally, more information on the changes to Steam will be revealed once the tools mentioned above are finished.
