Earlier in 2024, Valve announced that games being sold in Germany were going to require an Age Rating to continue to be sold, and now there's a deadline.
An update was posted to Valve's official Steamworks documentation (thanks SteamDB), that now makes it clear that game developers have a deadline of November 15th 2024 to ensure an Age Rating is provided. If one is missing, from that date the games simply won't be displayed to Steam customers in Germany.
Developers will need to "truthfully complete Steam's built-in content questionnaire and publish the results". Thankfully Valve has a built-in system for this, so it shouldn't take long for developers to do.
From Valve's FAQ:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.Q. When do I need to complete this questionnaire by?
A. You can complete the questionnaire at any time. Games without a German age rating will be hidden from customers in Germany starting November 15, 2024.
Q. If I fill out the questionnaire, is my game guaranteed to remain available in Germany?
A. No. There are certain kinds of content that are not allowed for sale to customers in Germany. If present in your game, this content must be disclosed in the content questionnaire. Please complete the questionnaire completely and truthfully. Steam will automatically generate an appropriate rating for your game in Germany. If the generated rating allows, your game will automatically become visible to customers in Germany.
Q. What if my game has a USK rating?
A. If your game has been issued an age rating by going through the rating process directly with USK, you may also enter that information within the store page editor for your game. This is rare. If you do not have an agreement directly with USK, do not enter a USK rating.
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ContainerRunner about 3 hours ago
One the one hand, I understand it that all future purchases need to comply with laws (and already bought games are unaffected) but on the other hand blocking unrated games is totally overkill. There a tons of game pages that are no longer maintained and only money is exchanged like old indie games. Now it's the responsibility of publishers if they still want to earn money from Germans. At least Steam/Valve offers a survey without the need to go through the USK rating organization. Currently, even bigger titles like PUBG or Rust doesn't have a age rating on their store page.
No, China too. A quick SteamDB search shows if it has strong x content, it's likely blocked in both countries. See for example Seeds of Chaos from a previous GOL article.
However, it should be noted that USK only wants strong verification systems for 18+ genre. So like age verification through state id or similar, but Steam doesn't want to deal with it. Well it's kind of understandable, because of privacy responsibilities.
Quoting: ChrisznixSigh. Yeah, give it to us, we need the pain. Us Gerrrmans need to be protected, we have German Angst!
Man, why can´t we just have Eikes proposal? Auto-Age 18 for nonresponders and thats it.
We are already protected from all the pr0n-games already (as the only country i believe).
No, China too. A quick SteamDB search shows if it has strong x content, it's likely blocked in both countries. See for example Seeds of Chaos from a previous GOL article.
However, it should be noted that USK only wants strong verification systems for 18+ genre. So like age verification through state id or similar, but Steam doesn't want to deal with it. Well it's kind of understandable, because of privacy responsibilities.
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Quoting: Deleted_UserAbsolut overkill by Steam (or the legislator). It would be still less disruptive if they asume an age restriction of 18, which would be the harshest possible restriction.Obvious solution. Age verification is nothing magical and for a shop the size of Steam it's obviously worth the implementation cost. In Germany, we are used to authenticating against our ID card (which every adult must have), our banking cards or 3rd party authentication services like Postident to register to streaming services or buy alcohol/tobacco/vapes/adult content/knifes/whatever on the net. As Steam is completely account based, they could bind a single validation against the account and be done for.
When I was a child, things were a lot more restrictive then they are now, especially regarding video game content. Digital distribution broke through our laws that were made assuming video games are sold as physical items and only now things start to catch up a little.
There is broad consensus here that children should not get access to violent computer games unless parents decide to allow it. If parents want to allow it, they are free to do so, but if they don't want to allow it, it's not considered their job to invade their kids privacy..
Last edited by const on 2 October 2024 at 3:20 pm UTC
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Quoting: constQuoting: Deleted_UserAbsolut overkill by Steam (or the legislator). It would be still less disruptive if they asume an age restriction of 18, which would be the harshest possible restriction.Obvious solution. Age verification is nothing magical and for a shop the size of Steam it's obviously worth the implementation cost. In Germany, we are used to authenticating against our ID card (which every adult must have), our banking cards or 3rd party authentication services like Postident to register to streaming services or buy alcohol/tobacco/vapes/adult content/knifes/whatever on the net. As Steam is completely account based, they could bind a single validation against the account and be done for.
When I was a child, things were a lot more restrictive then they are now, especially regarding video game content. Digital distribution broke through our laws that were made assuming video games are sold as physical items and only now got back to attention.
There is broad consensus here that children should not get access to violent computer games unless parents decide to allow it. If parents want to allow it, they are free to do so, but it's not their job to invade their kids privacy.
I would scream that digital age verification without privacy invasion is hard, but gambling games(the only games covered under the law) already require bank account coupling, so just make people take a loan and immediately pay it off before they can buy the game.
(This is mostly to warn off myself and other techies not to start screaming Privacyyyy)
Last edited by LoudTechie on 2 October 2024 at 3:23 pm UTC
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Quoting: LoudTechie...It's not like there is no way to do it privacy friendly. Valve gift cards are sold in nearly every super market and tobacco shop here. They are usually located directly next to products that already require age validation or even full identification to purchase (like sim cards). I assume it would be possible for them to bind the purchase of one tier of these cards to an age verification at the counter (the cash register would even trigger a small alarm for necessary age validation). That would hardly be considered privacy invading here.
Last edited by const on 2 October 2024 at 3:33 pm UTC
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Quoting: constPhysical gift cards also go well indeed.Quoting: LoudTechie...It's not like there is no way to do it privacy friendly. Valve gift cards are sold in nearly every super market and tobacco shop here. They are usually located directly next to products that already require age validation or even full identification to purchase (like sim cards). I assume it would be possible for them to bind the purchase of one tier of these cards to an age verification at the counter (the cash register would even trigger a small alarm for necessary age validation). That would hardly be considered privacy invading here.
Adding a bank account coupling or a physical confirmation to a transaction that doesn't already have one(yes, this isn't the case for this law) creates a giant privacy and usability problem, because bank accounts and id cards have a lot of personal details like your name, your bank account id, your birthdate, your financial status, your length, etc. and also require quite a lot of work if you live in another country than the developer.
This is as I already stated not a problem for gambling game purchases, which is what the law covers.
Edit:
As such I do agree that in this specific case age verification isn't a problem.
I have a great respect for the german lawmakers for getting such a hard problem well oozed in the law, but that doesn't change the fact that digital id verification without invading various fundamental rights is hard.
I made my previous comment to clarify to myself and other people concerned about the privacy risks of such a law that in this specific case this isn't a problem.
Last edited by LoudTechie on 2 October 2024 at 4:18 pm UTC
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Linux_Rocks 59 minutes ago
With those AfD morons making gains, and their piece of shit pseudo-historian leader with his dictatorial aspirations spewing bullshit. This GIF is even more fitting than ever, and even more so cause of those Austrian FPO idiots too. lol
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This is the regional pricing thing all over again. I can see many games being delisted for Germany, because so many companies aren't going to go back to older games and set those ratings.
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Germany consistently takes L after L. Banning sale of unrated titles without grandfathering in the ones which can't possibly be re-rated is a massively stupid idea.
They will decriminalize child pornography like a bunch of sick fucks (yes, the German government seriously got away with that), but HOW DARE you buy a video game with some cartoon gore in it. I think the entire German government needs to be thrown out and reset.
Last edited by bonkmaykr on 2 October 2024 at 5:40 pm UTC
They will decriminalize child pornography like a bunch of sick fucks (yes, the German government seriously got away with that), but HOW DARE you buy a video game with some cartoon gore in it. I think the entire German government needs to be thrown out and reset.
Last edited by bonkmaykr on 2 October 2024 at 5:40 pm UTC
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