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Steam Age Check Locks Out 65% of Adult Australians [2026] (tech-insider.org)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/australia@aussie.zone
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"Steam started blocking Australian users from viewing or buying 18+ rated games on September 9, 2026, unless they attach a valid credit card to their account. Valve’s rollout affects hundreds of mature-rated titles, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom Eternal, and it doesn’t matter whether the account is brand new or fifteen years old with a library full of paid-for adult games. Without a credit card on file, those store pages, search results, and even home-page recommendations simply disappear."

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[–] 4 points 1 week ago (5 children)

You should still be able to install and play previously purchased games, just not buy new 18+ ones

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  • [+] -8 points 1 week ago* (4 children)

    Firstly, I can't install games that are locked down, so I can't access my own copy of cyberpunk, because I can't reinstall it.

    Even if I could reinstall it, but was locked out of future R rated purchases, that would be the end of my steam purchasing, because fuck that

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  • [–] 7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    Are you trying to reinstall from the store page? It should work if you search your library directly.

    My account is "unverified" just like yours and I'm able to reinstall cyberpunk perfectly fine, even though the store page is locked down.

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  • [+] -6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Haven't tried that, because I don't actually plan on re-installing, but it looks like it would work.

    Either way, steam is dead to me now, so workarounds or not, they will see no more of my money

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    You are blaming the wrong party, blame the government for forcing Valve to do this, Valve isn't doing this because they want to.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 week ago

    I kinda disagree. Steam is being lazy in this.

    Social media and other providers know if they ignore the problem enough people will get mad at the gov.

    I don’t disagree that the gov/regulators have approached this half baked however the onus should be on the provider to put together a solution. They ain’t.

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