Intro
I’ll break the bad news up front. Holodexxx was rejected three times from the Steam marketplace. We’re disappointed, of course, but rather than dwell on the negative, let’s make some lemonade out of these lemons and help other adult developers avoid making the same mistakes that we did.
Here’s what we learned about our journey with Steam, and where (we think) the Steam submission process could improve.
First, a bit of background. Holodexxx is an adult game studio that creates unique experiences with photo-real adult stars. We focus heavily on realism, and dynamically generated facial animation to create a sense of connection between our characters and the Player. We’re not shying away from the raw sexuality inherent in displaying an accurate replica of the human body, and our experiences will only become more explicit in the future.
Virtual sex is great, and we unabashedly create pro-lewd content.
Last year, we experienced a major boost to morale when Steam announced that they would allow “adult content” on Steam, and take a hands off approach to moderation on the platform. This announcement led us to believe that Holodexxx would have access to Steam’s global marketplace; which would make the project (and our studio) much more financially viable. We doubled down on our efforts, energized by the opportunity to offer Holodexxx to millions of VR enthusiasts.
In the last year we have launched three early demos, and two episodes of our first story -- Holodexxx Home. We were lucky enough to find a home on a few platforms that truly welcome adult content, and have been growing on Patreon. Once we developed a solid foundation of fans and content, we began our awkward (and ultimately sad) tango with Steam.
The Steam Dance
Initially, we submitted a PG-13 experience where our Riley Reid virtual model performs a sensual dance for the Player in VR. Our model was dressed in a bra and panties, with a video teaser of our other Holodexxx models dancing in the background -- completely censored. We assumed that zero nudity in the submission would guarantee us approval with Steam.
After a week of creating assets for the storefront, and censoring a build for Steam, our app was banned with a boiler-plate explanation that video pornography was not allowed on Steam. We did not have video pornography in our submission. We figured that a censored video of live action adult stars was the culprit, even though those adult stars were heavily censored.
Possible lesson learned: No video content of live adult stars on Steam?
Next, we submitted Meet Marley; an extremely basic experience which allows the Player to inspect our Marley Brinx digital character in a virtual environment. After a week of creating assets for the storefront, we were banned again with a boiler-plate explanation that pornography was not allowed on Steam. This time, we did not have any video content in our submission.
After this latest rejection, we asked for clarification as to why the app was banned, and received no help understanding what made our experience “pornography.” We asked the submissions team for a brief outline of what would be allowed on Steam, considering our content -- but they simply replied that they will judge our next app when they receive it.
Left to our own devices, we put our heads together and came to the conclusion that Valve needed to see other content surrounding the sexual moments in our games. Maybe, “pornography,” as defined by the submissions team, is an experience that revolves exclusively around sexual content.
Possible lesson learned: Adult content on Steam requires story/gameplay.
We spent months fleshing out our dialog systems, and our first set of interactions for Holodexxx Home. The Player could talk to Lady Euphoria (a fictional character, based off of some scans of Marley Brinx) through a series of chatbot dialog encounters, undress Euphoria, and play with her via simple physical interactions. Euphoria is undressed by the Player through a series of VR interactions, and teases herself to a climax. Running roughly 10 minutes in length, the truly “adult” content makes up a small percentage of the experience.
We submitted Home, and waited a few weeks. After poking Steam via help tickets, our build was reviewed two days later.. and banned. The explanation was again, that Steam does not allow “pornography” on their platform.
Possible lesson learned: None, we’re super confused.
What is Pornography to Steam?
After another back and forth with the review team, we were no closer to understanding what Steam’s policy was when it came to “pornography” or even how they define pornography. The gist of it was that reviewers “knew pornography when they saw it,” and would not further define the nature of their decision making process.
Our hunch is that Steam does not like the idea of nude models based on photogrammetry scans, but for their own reasons, are not willing to declare it. At the very least, Steam does not approve of adult performers in virtual form -- which is a truly bizarre line to draw.
We have arrived at this conclusion by identifying which facet of our submitted experiences was the common denominator.
Zen diagrams are so sexy.
Submission #1: Sneak Peak: No nudity, but did include heavily censored video
Submission #2: Meet Marley: Nudity of a digital character, but no video
Submission #3: Holodexxx Home: Nudity, and a heavy focus on dialog and gameplay
It seems like the common denominator for all of our submissions was the inclusion of adult entertainers -- both clothed, and unclothed.
The questions surrounding this issue are numerous, and worth exploring. If a 3D artist recreated a virtual adult performer from scratch, utilizing traditional 3d modeling and texturing not obtained through photogrammetry, is that acceptable? If we stylized our adult star characters, but kept their identities intact, would that trigger the same repulsion from Steam?
Most interestingly, can Riley Reid appear in a realistic, and sexual game like Cyberpunk 2040 if they show her breasts? Can she be in any game, at all?
Are my hopes for a Mia Malkova pinball game dashed?
The truth is, Steam will not answer these questions, or any other questions regarding their stance on pornography, or photogrammetry. By not releasing guidelines around adult content, Steam makes submissions needlessly risky.
Our Mistakes
1) Believing that games on Steam set a precedent for future submissions.
Steam is already chock full of exposed genitals, and content that is much more sexually explicit than Holodexxx, so we did not expect to be rejected on the basis that our experiences were too “sexual” in that way. (We would cite examples of extremely lewd content, but we are not going to put a target on another dev’s Steam release. We all know that genitals exist on steam. You can find them on your own.)
There are experiences on Steam that are thinly veiled delivery systems for 2D pornography (think “Mindsweeper covering a nude image” thin) so we expected Steam’s bar for “pornography” to be quite low.
Our photogrammetry scans were our main concern. Camasutra, an experience that uses similar photogrammetry technology as Holodexxx, had their app in “Ready to Launch” status for over a year. This status meant that Camasutra had their storefront, and build approved by the Steam submissions team.
Steam retroactively banned Camasutra’s app upon review of Holodexxx. According to Steam Spy, after a year of being in “Ready to Launch'' status, the Camasutra app was banned three hours before Holodexxx Home was rejected by the Steam moderation team.
Clearly, precedence does not set a standard for Steam’s review team; in fact, it seems that new rules will be retroactively applied to previously acceptable submissions.
2) Being Upfront with Steam
As we know, many adult experiences offer day 1 patches for their Steam games. Those patches allow for experiences to easily get by Steam’s censors, and bypass the safeguards in place that keep “questionable” content off of their platform.
We made the decision early on that we would always be honest about what we are building, and not shy away from the reality of our explicit intent. The reality is that Steam will not reward you for honesty. Maybe we should have joined the illustrious ranks of games uncensored via an external patch.
3) Submitting Experiences as a Form of Experimentation
We thought that if we submitted multiple applications through Steam, we would be able to suss out their internal rules surrounding “pornography” and adult content in general. It doesn’t feel like there are any set-in-stone rules surrounding adult content; and if there is, we were not any closer to understanding what they are.
What we do know, is that Steam dislikes depictions of real-life sex workers on Steam, which, frankly, we do not understand. There are dozens of games on Steam featuring real life mass murderers, but adult film stars are the real threat.
Do I sound salty? I think I sound salty.
Steam is Needlessly Painful
But hey, Steam? Does this process need to be so frustrating and costly for small developers? We spent over 20k in development time creating builds tailored for Steam, and flushed our submissions fees down the toilet. We scraped, and went without to make these submissions happen, and it did not have to be this painful.
Here is a shortlist of a few things that you can do to save adult devs a lot of time, effort, and money.
Provide loose guidelines for what you consider “pornography”, and examples of experiences that you have not allowed on Steam. These guidelines could provide developers with the opportunity to better shape their experiences to be more “Steam friendly.” The dreaded Hey’s Code was racist, homophobic, and misogynistic, but at least it was specific when it came to what Hollywood could depict on screen.
Allow adult developers to submit a paper review of their game’s features before they go through the trouble of making an entire Steam store page, and a build for submission. These paper reviews won’t guarantee acceptance, but could allow Steam to head off any experience they would flatly never let on their platform.
Refund any submission cost to developers if their apps are banned based on a classification that Steam is not willing to openly define. ‘Pornography’ seems to be the only ban-able classification that is wide open to personal interpretation. It is not ethical to ask developers to shoulder the financial burden of an undefined marketplace application process.
Let adult devs remove features which make Valve uncomfortable during the compliance review. Outright banning adult experiences because of a single feature does not allow adult devs the opportunity to navigate the process with any sort of comfort. On that same note, why not provide a shortlist of changes that a developer could make if their submission is denied? Surely you have some sort of internal justification for denying a developer access to your marketplace, so why not disclose it?
The submissions process for adult games can be a much less painful experience if Steam enacts some of these cost/time saving ideas. If anyone at Steam is reading this, please consider them.
Enter MetaHuman
MetaHuman is a system developed by Epic that allows developers to easily create lifelike virtual humans. In time, these characters will be indistinguishable from models based on photogrammetry scans. In the event that Epic bans adult content from accessing Metahuman, a competitor will eventually rise up to fill that void.
So what?
Well, it’s simply a matter of time before we start seeing lewd projects based on this incredible technology.
What then? Well, we have some questions.
If someone generates a character that looks too “real”, and displays their breasts, is that against Steam Hey’s Code?
Is “pornography” code for “looks too real?”
A more troubling question -- how will Steam determine the age of these characters? Does a reviewer at Steam currently judge whether a character is of age based on a set list of body traits?
These problems surrounding likeness rights, and age verification are coming, and in some ways, they are already here. As our games continue to edge towards photo-real, at what point does the Steam “hands-off” approach to likenesses collapse?
We stand by the belief that characters based on real adult stars is the only way to ensure that a model is of appropriate age, and the creators have the proper consent to use that person’s likeness. If we are to create ethical, realistic porn, it must include real human verification.
Conclusion
After this, we think that we are slightly closer to understanding how the Steam review process works for adult content, and the results are disappointing. Devs submit an experience, and based on which reviewer you are assigned, your content can be considered “pornography” and immediately banned. Developers must sink the time and cost of setting up a full Steam store before their review; and receive nothing but a copy/paste rejection comment when their apps are summarily banned.
What is abundantly clear is that Steam is wary of 3D photo-realistic depictions of adult entertainers; and un-stylized depictions of the female body. Past precedent of other lewd content does not indicate whether your submission will pass inspection, and the Steam team will refuse to comment on what made your app fail their review.
Valve would rather your Players download a censored version of adult games through Steam, and then be sent to an external source to download a XXX patch -- instead of safely hosting that content on Steam. On top of all of that, despite claiming to be a new home for adult content, Steam has developed an internal Hey’s Code for adult content -- while refusing to let developers know it’s rules.
Where do we stand? Well, we’re disappointed.
We never imagined that Steam would have a list of hidden criteria that they would refuse to give to developers; and frankly, it seems like Steam has a lack of respect for developers in the adult space.
Holodexxx will continue building what we think to be the natural evolution of adult games, undeterred by this roadblock. Our Patrons has allowed us to hire more developers, and continue our mission of creating an ethical, serious adult experience — albeit, not on Steam. If you want to support our work, we’d love to have ya.
We sincerely hope that someone at Steam ends up reading about our experience, and it spurs some change in the adult games submission process. At the very least, if other adult devs can learn from our follies, we’ll consider that a win.
