INSANE: Steam BLOCKS Indie Game Over Woman in a Bathing Suit Thumbnail Deemed 'Too Sexy'...

Something bizarre is happening over at Valve... Something I've been keeping an eye on over the past few months... and its getting worse. Much worse. This time, it’s not about adult content or controversial themes. It’s about a simple image of a woman standing by a lake in a one-piece swimsuit.

That's literally it.

The developer of Aftermath: Red Pine Lake, an atmospheric horror game, revealed that their game’s Steam page has been blocked from approval because of the thumbnail image they used, which features a lone woman in a bathing suit, standing by the water. No nudity. No sexual content. Just a woman near a lake, which fits the setting of the game perfectly.

And yet, Steam still flagged it as inappropriate.

A Growing Pattern of Hypocrisy

This isn’t the first time Valve’s moderation team has made baffling choices about what is and isn’t allowed on its platform. Steam’s adult-content section is overflowing with explicit pornographic games... many of which openly advertise themselves with far more, I'll just say... suggestive imagery. Meanwhile, smaller indie titles, particularly those featuring normal depictions of women in non-sexual contexts, are getting flagged or outright blocked.

It’s hard for anyone to find any consistent logic behind it. Why are games that literally contain graphic sexual acts available on Steam without issue, while something like Red Pine Lake; a horror title with a fully clothed woman in a natural setting, gets denied a store page!? Legit INSANITY!

At best, this inconsistency is absurd. At worst, it looks like ideological bias. And we all know the direction this has all been heading.

When I reached out to the developer, Sakura Studios, they responded with:

Thank you that is very kind! We are getting overwhelmed here so we really appreciate the support. This post we made might help clear up the situation. People think there is a magic adult setting we can use to get it approved but they aren't aware steam now mandates that all games even 18+ can't use sexual imagery. Hope this post helps and we can help answer any questions here, thank you! Love your work by the way!

...and shared the following post:

They continued:

...I think this is a sign of what's to come next with steam, these rules don't seem to be public knowledge hence why so many keep asking us about the magic 18+ tag they think will fix this.

Steam’s “Standards” Are Anything But Clear

The thumbnail in question isn’t remotely sexualized. The woman is shown looking off-screen, visibly anxious, her body language communicating tension... not any kinda seduction. It’s a moment meant to set the tone for a horror experience, not a swimsuit calendar... and tbh, it fits the bill and aura seemingly perfectly.

To the dev's credit, they are keeping good spirits and joking with me about the ludicrousness of the situation by editing the thumbnail to be more... steam appropriate:

Yet somehow, Steam’s review system has decided that this is over the line. The same system that greenlights games with explicit sexual acts and cartoon fetishes has a problem with a woman wearing beach-appropriate clothing in a game that takes place at a lake.

The developer continued:

We truly will try make the most of a bad situation with this and keep fighting it! Steams latest response seems to show they are unwilling to refund or even respond to our points anymore, instead they have asked us to report other devs for them... not kidding I will grab you the log

It’s as if someone at Valve has adopted the position that any depiction of a woman who looks remotely normal or conventionally attractive is automatically sexualized... unless she’s being presented through a politically approved filter.

That’s not “protecting standards.” That’s policing normalcy.

The Industry’s Double Standard

This incident highlights a deeper problem infecting the gaming industry: selective censorship. Developers who don’t fit into certain ideological molds or who dare to make games without DEI-approved optics increasingly find themselves fighting uphill battles. Not just against the algorithm, but against the gatekeepers behind it.

Games that promote “the message” can get away with nearly anything. But an indie horror title showing a woman in a bathing suit at a lake? Suddenly NOPE! it’s now deemed “inappropriate”.

It’s not hard to see where this road leads; one where creative expression is constantly second-guessed, scrubbed, and sanitized by faceless committees afraid of offending the perpetually offended.

Whats Next?

Aftermath: Red Pine Lake isn’t even out yet, but it’s already exposing the hypocrisy of Steam’s content moderation system. When a small indie dev like this one can’t even post a thumbnail that matches the theme of their game without getting flagged, it raises serious questions about what kind of content Valve actually wants to host... and who gets to decide what’s “acceptable.”

The developer stated to me:

We think if we make the game on steam it will get censored at some point so we are looking to go elsewhere, sadly changing the networking isn't something we budgeted for so we are stuck, but bending the knee would feel counter productive.

This is the next phase after the initial VISA/Mastercard censorship we spoke of last month. It's getting worse. MUCH worse. The community is up in arms about it over on steam as well.

The message this sends to developers is chilling: don’t bother making authentic art. Don’t take risks. Don’t show women unless they fit a narrow ideological checklist. What even is gaming anymore, now that its been co-opted by lefty lunatics. This shit needs to stop.

And if this is the standard Steam’s moving toward, it’s a sad day for creativity - and a disturbing sign of where gaming’s biggest storefront is heading.

~Smash UPDATE: It's not just steam. Now Twitter/X is also displaying an "adult Content Warning" for sharing pictures of this image. Make me wonder if this is just dead internet theory in action... and no one is actually working anywhere at these companies haha.