{"id":1274743,"date":"2026-03-15T07:01:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T07:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itchio-but-valve-claims-otherwise"},"modified":"2026-03-15T07:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T07:01:21","slug":"mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastercard insists it has not &#8220;required restrictions of any&#8221; game on Steam or itch.io, but Valve claims otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise.jpg\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>\nAs Steam and Itch.io continued to grapple with recent pressure by payment processors to withdraw NSFW games from their platforms, Mastercard has moved to distance itself from the ensuing censorship controversy, insisting it has not &#8220;required restrictions of any&#8221; game. But Valve says otherwise, pointing to a Mastercard rule saying the company can refuse to process anything it believes &#8216;reflects negatively&#8217; on its brand.\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itchio-but-valve-claims-otherwise\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itchio-but-valve-claims-otherwise\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Steam and Itch.io continued to grapple with recent pressure by payment processors to withdraw NSFW games from their platforms, Mastercard has moved to distance itself from the ensuing censorship controversy, insisting it has not &#8220;required restrictions of any&#8221; game. But Valve says otherwise, pointing to a Mastercard rule saying the company can refuse to process anything it believes &#8216;reflects negatively&#8217; on its brand. Read more Source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1274744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-1274743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer","tag-pc"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mastercard insists it has not &quot;required restrictions of any&quot; game on Steam or itch.io, but Valve claims otherwise | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As Steam and Itch.io continued to grapple with recent pressure by payment processors to withdraw NSFW games from their platforms, Mastercard has moved to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mastercard insists it has not &quot;required restrictions of any&quot; game on Steam or itch.io, but Valve claims otherwise | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Steam and Itch.io continued to grapple with recent pressure by payment processors to withdraw NSFW games from their platforms, Mastercard has moved to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-15T07:01:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/mastercard-insists-it-has-not-required-restrictions-of-any-game-on-steam-or-itch-io-but-valve-claims-otherwise\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Mastercard insists it has not &#8220;required restrictions of any&#8221; 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