From PC Gamer · · 2m
Steam slapped Nighthawks with an Adults Only tag
A vampire RPG with a few butt shots got shelved next to porn games a week before launch, and Germany can't buy it.
In brief
A vampire RPG with a few butt shots got shelved next to porn games a week before launch, and Germany can't buy it. Valve makes developers guess where 'mature' ends and 'adult' begins, and a wrong guess can wipe a game off search and out of whole countries. Originally reported by PC Gamer.
A vampire RPG gets flagged
Nighthawks, out September 22 from Wadjet Eye Games, was labelled Adults Only by Steam. It vanished from search and got delisted outright in countries like Germany.
The publisher pushes back
Wadjet Eye boss Dave Gilbert posted on Bluesky that Valve has the wrong read on the game, and that they are trying to get the classification reversed.
“Valve is under the impression that this game is way sexier than it actually is.”
What the label actually costs
Adults Only games stay out of default search. Players must log in, verify their age, sometimes with a credit card, and change content settings just to see the store page.
Germany is the real hit
Creator Richard Cobbett says the delisting makes the game persona non grata in several markets that matter, and the team still doesn't know what tripped the filter.
“We're hoping that they will quickly remove the scarlet letter.”
Milder than HBO
Cobbett grants that vampires are a bit sexy and the game is mature, but says the actual nudity is light and usually played for laughs.
“It's really all very mild, usually comedic in tone when it happens, and far less explicit than anything you'd see on HBO.”
A few butt shots, then fade to black
Romance scenes amount to censored glimpses and a date-style adventure, ending in a tasteful cut and a 'Ten minutes later' card. Nothing explicit is shown.
It happened to another game
In July, Future? No Thanks! was delayed by a weeks-long Steam review over dozens of untextured polygons shaped like butts and boobs. It cleared and shipped September 4.
Valve won't draw the line
Steam tells developers to age-gate mature and adult content but never says where one ends and the other starts. A 2024 rule added a ban on anything payment processors might reject.
Waiting on Valve
Cobbett argues anyone unbothered by Dragon Age won't blink at Nighthawks. The team wants the decision reversed before the September 22 launch. Valve hasn't commented.
“Everyone can get to be the vampire they deserve to be as planned next week.”
The key point
Valve makes developers guess where 'mature' ends and 'adult' begins, and a wrong guess can wipe a game off search and out of whole countries.
