Episode 43 - Is this our last chance to play queer games on Steam?

This week, Steam was forced to removed a bunch of overly explicit games at the behest of Visa and Mastercard, the two most important payment processors that allow Steam to make money.

The games that were removed were not queer (they were of the much more “aggressive” variety) — but where is the line drawn? How long before queer games are equated in the same breath as games that are actually explicit? Will Visa and Mastercard force Steam to purge games with the LGBTQ+ tag?

This subject matter is heavy and this episode contains a content warning before the discussion.

In the first half of the episode, we discuss what we’ve been playing (including Donkey Kong Bananza!) and the news.

Headlines include: a release year for The Last of Us Season 3, Donkey Kong is getting his own movie, Nintendo has found their Link and Zelda for the live action Legend of Zelda movie, Cyberpunk 2077 got a surprise content update, some disappointing AI news, and much more!

Joining me for all of this is Lloyd_Lloydster and newcomer Cleo, who also brings our Queer Game of the Week.

 

00:00:00 - Intro

00:06:08 - What We’ve Been Playing

00:28:00 - News

00:57:22 - Is this our last chance to play queer games on Steam?

01:43:19 - Queer Game of the Week: Tell Me Why

 

This episode was recorded on July 19 2025.

 

***SPOILERS for Unpacking (from 01:27:45 to 01:28:56)

 

Sources:

https://game8.co/games/Donkey-Kong-Bananza/archives/537239

https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/rmm_voyager_V01503556900000

https://deadline.com/2025/01/shrek-5-minions-3-release-dates-1236254122/

https://x.com/nintendo/status/1945433161124688335?s=46&t=sVUrhNeL5EXDMRDpzdemfQ

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-last-of-us-season-3-planned-for-2027-and-could-be-the-series-end-hbo-boss-says

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/assassins-creed-live-action-series-netflix-1236463572/

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/steam-games-disclosing-generative-ai-use-are-up-800-this-year/

https://mobilegamer.biz/laid-off-king-staff-set-to-be-replaced-by-the-ai-tools-they-helped-build-say-sources/

https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1945287268748361864

https://www.youtube.com/live/aFLKoZaHak8

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/7-months-after-cyberpunks-last-update-yet-more-new-content-has-been-revealed/

https://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/s/1iP8uKRjrc

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/onboarding

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/07/valve-gets-pressured-by-payment-processors-with-a-new-rule-for-game-devs-and-various-adult-games-removed/

https://www.newsweek.com/why-visa-mastercard-being-blamed-onlyfans-banning-explicit-content-pornography-1621570

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-whistleblower-says-mastercard-visa-failed-stop-payments-child-sex