Indie game Future? No Thanks! developer Molleindustria has publicly criticized Valve after the game was repeatedly flagged as “Adult Only” on Steam—without Valve clearly explaining which content actually violated their rules. Developer Pedercini states the game does contain some nudity and adult themes, but there’s no explicit sexual content, and the overall style leans closer to adult animation with dark humor.
We Changed the Content, And It’s Still a Problem!
What really baffled the developer is that the team was willing to modify content for Steam. Even after removing all nudity, the game was still rejected, this time for containing “explicit or graphic adult content.” The problem is, Valve never specified which scene, which character, or which element triggered the flag—leaving the dev team completely in the dark about what to change next. In short: you’re told you failed the exam, but not which questions you got wrong.
“Steam is a Monopoly”?
Pedercini went so far as to call Steam’s influence in the PC gaming market “a monopoly with few precedents,” stating: “As a developer, I’m completely at their mercy.” While this remains the developer’s perspective on Steam’s market position, whether Steam constitutes a monopoly in the legal sense is still debated. Valve has faced similar antitrust lawsuits in the past, though Valve has consistently denied any monopolistic practices through Steam.
Rule Transparency: Now That’s Another Problem
What truly frustrates developers in this situation isn’t just the “adult” label itself—it’s how Valve determines and justifies these decisions, information that’s notoriously hard to obtain. Steam has faced controversies over adult content policies and payment processor rules before, with 2025 seeing numerous adult games delisted or restricted. For smaller developers, Steam remains one of the most important PC distribution platforms, so when platform rules become unpredictable, developers naturally feel they have little room to negotiate.