Germany Will Ban Games with No Age Rating Starting Next Month

A few years ago, Germany did something unexpected: it banned all 18+ Steam games from the storefront. While the ban isn't really on games, the fact that Steam's age verification is pretty simple to bypass (coming from a woman born on the 1st of January, 1900, according to my Steam age for whenever I want to enter Adult Only titles), it essentially nuked all of the adult titles on the platform. While it seemed like the end of that saga, a new regulation set forth by Germany will now prevent all games from being sold, so long as they do not have a valid age rating.

Beginning on the 15th of November in 2024, this new regulation could potentially empty out a lot of unmonitored and old titles for German users. Now found in the Steamworks Documentation named German Age Ratings Required, Steam has begun the process of warning all partners (developers and publishers alike) to fill out a Steam built-in questionnaire to remain available for sale in the country.

Either of the two forms of age rating will suffice: titles with an official USK rating should be able to remain for sale in the storefront or the official Steam one, which requires developers to fill out a questionnaire about their game. While this poses possible good news for upcoming titles — meaning future games might not be affected, as developers can easily fill out a questionnaire to release in Germany so long as it does not break any further rules — older titles are the ones most likely to be hit. Unmoderated Steam games won't be acquirable so long as they do not receive an official rating from the developer who owns the specific storefront.

This regulation will be set in motion on the 15th of November 2024.