Steam Faces Challenges Due to Visa and Mastercard Censorship

Whoa, okay, so here’s the thing: If you’ve been trying to snag a game on Steam lately, maybe it hit you like a weird dream — PayPal just gone. Poof. Not a glitch, not a hiccup, but Steam’s whole shebang with the big dogs like Visa and Mastercard. Can’t make this up.

I get it, sounds wild, right? Valve spilled the beans to Rock Paper Shotgun and it’s all tangled up with PayPal’s cosmic decision to bail because, get this, of the “content on Steam” spiel. Like, remember the Mastercard chaos? Yup, same boat.

So, picture this: one of PayPal’s knight-in-shining-armor banks just noped out of processing for Steam, leaving PayPal users in a lurch. But don’t freak out, not everyone’s cut off. I clicked around, and hey, no problem logging into PayPal. As of some early July morning — had to squint to believe it — folks using EUR, CAD, GBP, JPY, AUD, and USD are still cruising fine. While that’s cool for some, others are feeling the crash of currencies. It’s a mess worldwide, honestly.

There’s more to the stew — PayPal’s kinda off in distant parts of Steam too. Steam waving around its grown-up content like it’s a bad itch, got slapped by payment pros and those Collective Shout warriors screaming about games like GTA. Even with processors screaming “we don’t choose your toys,” Valve’s like, “Nah, those banks are the loud ones, saying what’s hot or not.” Steam’s guidebook on what gets a thumbs up now? It’s murky as heck, all about rules from the money guys.

Platforms like Itchio are getting the stick too, with grown-up themes getting the side-eye. Gamers are waking up, fuming at these payment peeps for clamping down, censorship whispers flying around everywhere.

And just as we’re dodging adult game shenanigans, bam, age checks are smacking us on YouTube, Pornhub — you name it. When your internet ID is all out in the open, things get, I dunno, dicey.

Valve’s itching to get PayPal back in the fold for everyone. But when? Who knows, maybe when pigs fly. They’re eyeing other payment ways cause, you know, life goes on. Meanwhile, if you’re stuck in payment limbo, consider grabbing a Steam Wallet code. It’s a patch, not a fix, but what’re you gonna do, right?