this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
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Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down, but Valve says payment processors 'specifically cited' a Mastercard rule about damaging the brand (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Statement: https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2025/august/clarifying-recent-headlines-on-gaming-content.html

Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations.

Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.

Media contact

Seth Eisen

seth.eisen@mastercard.com

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[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Are the payment processors saying Visa"MC told them to not process payments for this content? Or are they just citing a section of the agreement when being asked why they're telling retailers to take down this content?

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 15 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Nobody on any side has cited any sections of any agreement specifically. The closest we've got is the statement from Stripe who is the payment processor who recently had to turn down business with a womens sexual education charity (despite spending months trying to get to an agreement) and the reason they cited was contractual obligations with banking networks including Visa and Mastercard. They stated they want to be able to process payments for porn companies, and that they're exploring other options, but they couldn't at this time.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 22 points 15 hours ago

From an article posted yesterday

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks. Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution. Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

[–] Microw@piefed.zip 2 points 11 hours ago

Sounds like Visa and Mastercard have clauses in their contracts that they don't even care about themselves, but payment processors like Stripe are bound to then