We’ve seen PlayStation and Xbox put their age verification live which has been fairly seamless, and Epic also launched theres today which is equally seamless, but Valve launched there R18+ age verification today, and it has people extremely upset.
Unlike the other platforms that will let you verify based on length of account ownership or facial scans, Valve is requiring an actual credit card to age verify to play/purchase R18+ games. Debit cards aren’t accepted for this and proper credit cards are needed.
When viewing R18+ games on Steam, you’ll be hit with the below message:
“Valve is required by the Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code to verify that you are 18 or older before accessing mature content. If you wish to do so, please add a valid Australian credit card to your account and afterwards update the Mature Content Preferences. Add a credit card to this account”
We’ve reached out to Valve to see if this is just a temporary measure, or operating as intended and if other measures will be put in place, but we know that Valve doesn’t have the best relationship with Australian when it comes to local laws.