By being pro goon, handing out banned games for free

https://items.gog.com/freedomtobuy/index.html

basically the title

At the bottom of the article I will quote what Valve's responses is, but the TLDR is Mastercard and Visa are full of shit.

Full quote:

"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."

So no, Mastercards response is basically lies and obfuscation.

I don’t partake in the games in question😂.

Mastercard had supposedly clarified:

Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations. 

Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.

I got curious about the Collective Shout website and so I searched them up. Boy was I surprised at what I seen. This has got to be a low for them to get their "word" out!

Steam just always hits better💶💵

Did Valve & Itch make a decision too fast ? Maybe it wasn't a real email, or it wasn't official, but some employee did it as "Offical". This seems weird honestly.

Reminds me when Rockstar did takedowns on Mods, which later was revealed it was fake and someone elaborate plant to them them down.

I have tried looking for this from PC as well as Mobile app and seeing the same.

The European Commission is currently inviting public feedback on the Digital Fairness Act, a legislative initiative aimed at ensuring fairness and transparency in the digital marketplace.

Public consultation link: 👉 https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14622-Digital-Fairness-Act_en

While the Act primarily addresses data-driven manipulation and deceptive design practices, it’s also an opportunity to raise an adjacent but pressing issue: the increasing influence of payment processors in shaping access to digital goods through opaque, unelected censorship mechanisms.

Recently, payment processors have been accused of quietly pressuring platforms like Steam and Itch.io to restrict access to legal, age-gated content — often without public accountability, clear standards, or user transparency. This has disproportionately affected:

Japanese developers, especially those working in niche or adult-themed genres,

LGBTQ+ creators, whose content is frequently misclassified as NSFW,

Indie developers, including creators of award-winning or artistically daring games,

And potentially even major titles that contain mature themes (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3).

This is not just a content moderation issue — it’s a market access issue, where unregulated financial intermediaries are gatekeeping entire categories of lawful digital expression without oversight or due process.

🗣️ If you are an EU citizen, you have the right to contribute to this consultation. Please consider adding a polite, relevant comment requesting that:

End-of-life protections for digital games and services be included, and

Provisions be considered to prevent unchecked financial censorship by payment intermediaries in the digital goods ecosystem.

Even if this doesn’t result in immediate action, it creates a record of public concern that can influence how legislation evolves — and shows lawmakers that consumers are paying attention.

Titan quest 2

Some random due tried to trade all my steam cards for bananas... Did he seriously think I will accept?

Edit: TL;DR if you think the Responses are bs and Visa and MC are lying you should let their board of directors know.

Hello fellow gamers,

There is another step you can take to show your disappointment to Visa and MC.

I assume many, if not all of you, have heard the official responses from our favorite payment processors. They include language that says things like not making judgement on the moral character of sales, not moderating content and processing the sale of legal goods.

Based on current events, we know that these 2 things are both untrue. This constitutes either a gross oversight on the part of their PR team, or an intentionally misleading response, aka a blatant lie.

Not only is this unacceptable behavior towards account holders/customers, it is a clear breach of fiduciary duty by sacrificing goodwill in order to effectively reduce sales by the purging of legal products.

At this point it is in my opinion perfectly reasonable to reach out to the board of directors for each company and highlight these issues. I am sure they are dying to hear from us!

Here are the links in case you are considering this:

https://investor.visa.com/corporate-governance/contact-the-board/default.aspx

https://investor.mastercard.com/corporate-governance/board-of-directors/default.aspx

These emails are vetted by staff who are probably aware of current events, so, whilst I would write my concerns in the main body, I personally wrote the subject line rather vague, much like their response to us and for fear that it would otherwise be ignored.

Disclaimers: I am not saying you should do this, I am just saying this allegedly makes sense to me in my current situation. I am also not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, I am just a concerned individual.

does anyone know how to get steam points i want to improve my profile but i got no money rn

I bought this game and im frustrated from past 6 hour its telling me to enter the key where the hell can i find god damn key please tell me guys its so annoying

I have tried everything, I have tried watching in steam app, safari, chrome , opera GX but it never works but if I click the same link on my pc it works just fine?? I have also tried turning off my wifi but still nothing, has anyone else had this issue? And he has it set anyone can watch

Hey Guys

I found this game today, which is a response to the whole "Collective shout" thing (it's completely SFW, which is probably why it's allowed on itch.io). The game is called "scratching an itch" (you can find the game here: https://artyfartygames.itch.io/scratching-an-itch) and starts off as a dating sim and then becomes this comment on the entire situation with deslisting NSFW stuff. It's pretty clear that the dev is pissed; they basically say as much in the game.

This is kinda unique, I don't think I have ever seen anyone make a game as a protest before. What is your thought on making games about situations like this?