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| German President Frank Walter Steinnmeier at Gamescom next to Future? No Thanks!'s booth |
In a sudden reversal that has left indie developers breathing a sigh of relief, Valve has re-reviewed and removed the restrictive adult-content rating from MolleIndustria’s teen-rated satire, Future? No Thanks!. The change comes five weeks after the storefront first flagged the title, effectively hiding the game from default searches and triggering a hard geo-block in Germany.
The recategorization finally lifts the automatic age-verification wall in the UK and restores visibility for the title in the German market, where the store page had been completely inaccessible due to local regulations regarding unrated adult titles.
MolleIndustria confirmed the update via a Bluesky post, stating:
"It looks like Steam re-reviewed Future? No Thanks! and removed the 'frequent nudity or adult content,' reverting the Germany geo-ban and the age verification by credit card in the UK. It officially has only 'some nudity or adult content,' as every good game should."
A Contentious Review Process
The game’s Steam store page now describes the mature content as “implied off-screen sexual activity” and conversations about “sex, gender and death,” placing the title in a much less restrictive “Nudity and Sexual Content” bracket. However, the path to getting the rating corrected was fraught with silence and confusion.
For more than a month, Steam had classified Future? No Thanks! under the same umbrella as explicit adult titles. The issue began in late June when Valve first objected to nudity present in a specific build of the game. In an effort to comply swiftly, MolleIndustria says they cut the offending content entirely and resubmitted the build for review. Despite this, Valve maintained the adult classification without explanation.
The lack of communication from the platform holder frustrated the studio. According to Valve’s own onboarding documentation, the standard review turnaround is typically between one and five days. Instead, the team waited three weeks for a review that resulted in a misclassification, followed by additional weeks of silence.
The geo-block in Germany proved particularly ironic, as MolleIndustria was simultaneously operating a booth at Gamescom in Cologne. The booth was fully funded by the German government. While the government was actively promoting the studio’s work on the show floor, German citizens were unable to view the game’s Steam page due to the adult rating.
On Bluesky, MolleIndustria pushed back on the absurdity of the situation, posting a photo of the nation’s leader standing in front of the game:
"We are here in a booth sponsored by the German government. Here's the PRESIDENT OF GERMANY this morning, posing in front of a game that Steam considers too pornographic for this whole country."
Satire Missing Its Mark
For context, Future? No Thanks! is a satirical adventure title that explores the controversial subject of assisted dying through the lens of dark comedy. The gameplay revolves around an old man completing a bucket list on the last day before his scheduled anesthesia. Thematically, the game is rated for teens in most territories, making Steam’s "adult" tag a significant barrier to its target audience.
The misclassification had a tangible impact on the game’s visibility. Adult-rated games are removed from Steam’s default filters for most users, making them virtually undiscoverable unless players actively opt-in to seeing explicit content.
Paolo Pedercini, a designer on the project, voiced his frustration earlier in August regarding the inability to get a straight answer from Valve. In a Bluesky post, Pedercini detailed the removal of the problematic quest and the ongoing block:
"Update: even after we removed the entire sex quest, Steam misclassifies Future? No Thanks! As pornography, making it invisible to most Steam users and completely geo-locked in Germany. We are currently at Gamescom in Cologne, everybody is asking us why they can't see the PAGE of a Teen-rated game."
While the situation has finally been resolved, the incident highlights ongoing concerns among smaller developers regarding the opacity of Valve’s moderation process. Without clear feedback, developers are left guessing what specific assets triggered the filter, potentially wasting weeks of development time waiting for re-reviews. For now, Future? No Thanks! is finally visible to the German public and the wider Steam audience it was intended for.