Overview

Before submitting your store page and product build for review, you'll need to complete a Content Survey. Your survey answers will help us review your product prior to release, and will also be used to help customers understand how the content in your product matches with their expectations and account preferences.

Once you've completed the Content Survey and submitted your product for review, our team will compare the answers relative to the content in your build and on your store page.

Content Survey Sections

The content survey contains three primary sections that all must be completed prior to submitting the game to the Review Process

1) General Content

The first part of the content survey includes a range of topics that may be present in your game.

Finishing this section will generate ratings for several regional rating boards that can then be used on your store page. This data may also be used to generate additional regional ratings in the future.

If you already have ratings issued for your game directly by official rating board authorities, you may enter those under your game's Ratings section.

2) Mature Content

The second part of the survey requires disclosure of any mature content that players may encounter.

The information provided here will determine how your game appears relative to each customer's preferences. Because mature content such as depictions of violence and sex can be sensitive in nature, it is important that you make honest and accurate disclosures.

You must disclose all the adult content you've uploaded in your builds, even if it's not accessible or presented in your product.

3) Generative Artificial Intelligence Content

The third part of the survey deals with generative artificial intelligence in your development or product.

If your game used AI services during development or incorporates AI services as a part of the product, this section will require you to describe that implementation in detail:

• Pre-Generated: Any kind of content (art/code/sound/etc) created with the help of AI tools during development. Under the Steam Distribution Agreement, you promise Valve that your game will not include illegal or infringing content, and that your game will be consistent with your marketing materials. In our prerelease review, we will evaluate the output of AI generated content in your game the same way we evaluate all non-AI content - including a check that your game meets those promises.
  
• Live-Generated: Any kind of content created with the help of AI tools while the game is running. In addition to following the same rules as Pre-Generated AI content, this comes with an additional requirement - in the Content Survey, you'll need to tell us what kind of guardrails you're putting on your AI to ensure it's not generating illegal content.

As an aside, AI in games is rapidly evolving and we want to get it right. Many artists and creators are rightfully concerned about exploitation and misuse. But we also realize that technology and tools are going to change a bunch over the years, and there are lots of creative game developers out there figuring out ways to ethically use AI to make great entertainment. If you plan to release a product on Steam and you think we're overlooking something important in regard to AI, we'd love to hear from you.

FAQ

Q. So I can ship whatever I want as long as I complete these surveys?
A. Products on Steam must adhere to the content rules, regardless of whether it is disclosed in these surveys. These surveys will help us identify whether or not your product requires any updates.

Q. So, a customer just has to check a few boxes and they can get my game taken down?
A. Customers have always had the ability to report games on Steam for legal violations or other problems. Those reports are assessed by our team on a regular basis to investigate or take the necessary next steps.

Q. I've updated content in my game, but I can't update my survey?
A. Once your build and store page are approved for release, surveys cannot be edited without first contacting Steam Support. You'll want to contact us with a summary of what has changed, and which survey result is affected. Please provide instructions on how a tester can access the content in question.

Q. My copyright or trademark is being infringed. What do I do?
A. Valve respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we ask that everyone using Steam does the same.

• If you'd like to report Copyright Infringement and are the copyright holder, please proceed to our DMCA notice of copyright infringement form here.
  
• If you'd like to file a Trademark complaint, please fill out the form here.

Q. My game connects to a Live-Generated AI service, which incures on-going costs for each input/output. What should I do?
A. If you wish to integrate an external service like this into your game, you’ll need to manage both access to that external service on behalf of your players and collecting payment from your player using a Steam-supported payment method. Ultimately how you think about that in your monetization plan is up to you, but here are ways of collecting payment.

• You could consider modeling that cost into the main price of your game and not charge anything additional.
  
• A granular cost of live interactions with the AI service can be handled by having the game manage the incurred costs as microtransactions.
  
• You could offer a subscription to grant on-going ulimited access to the service.
  
• A single purchase DLC could be used to unlock unlimited interactions with the Live-Generated AI service.

Q. Why are Adult Only Sexual Content games utilizing Live-Generated AI treated differently?
A. Through the content survey and our own pre-release review, Valve attempts to meet three goals regarding Adult Only Sexual Content: enforce legal limits, respect game makers' creative freedom, and fulfill the expectations of customers. Having Live-Generated AI Adult Only Sexual Content during gameplay could affect our ability to meet these goals. The legal and customer risks are substantial enough that we don't want to ship Live-Generated AI Adult Only Sexual Content at this time.