Valve have blocked card sport Flick Solitaire from the Russian model of Steam, after federal censorship physique Roskomnadzor contacted the platform holder to order its elimination for “selling non-traditional sexualities”.
In a letter, Valve have additionally reproached builders Flick Video games for failing “to do your due diligence concerning the place your sport is allowed to be distributed, and to tell us of any territory the place it can’t be”. Flick Solitaire remains to be obtainable in Russia by way of the iOS and Android storefronts, nevertheless, regardless of Roskomnadzor sending related notes to Apple and Google. As of writing, Valve look like the one platform who’ve caved to Russian state requests to censor the sport.
All that is from the newest version of Video Video games Business Memo, written by George E. Osborn. To start out from the start, Flick Solitaire launched on iOS and Android in June 2020. It is a free-to-play assortment of Solitaire variations distinguished by the titular flick controls and a few lavish decks from unbiased artists, which embody playing cards with queer themes corresponding to Amee Wilsons’ Queer Chameleon Deck (pictured above) and Ollie T’s Drag Deck. I am unable to say I am compelled by the acquainted choice to grind for unlockable decks, or spend actual cash on in-game cash or a subscription cross, however I do assume a few of the designs are lovely.
The sport has been obtainable in Russia since its cell launch – it is the sport’s second largest market, in truth – although Flick Video games demonetised it for Russian gamers following the Vladimir Putin authorities’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, to keep away from producing any income for the aggressor.
Then, on 1st October 2025, Flick Solitaire launched in Steam early entry. The builders say they’d additionally demonetised the Steam model for Russian gamers, whereas noting that they cannot do something about platform options like retailer credit score which may permit individuals to get across the block. For context, Steam presently would not permit direct purchases by Russian gamers, in accordance with western sanctions, so Russian consumers must make use of workarounds corresponding to third-party key resellers.
On twenty eighth October, Flick Video games say they obtained official notices from Roskomnadzor, advising them that they’d damaged a 2006 legislation in opposition to the promotion of “non-traditional sexualities” – the VGIM article would not specify, however I think about it is referring to this notorious modification prohibiting the distribution of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” to minors. The censor additionally cc’d Flick Video games on emails to Apple, Google and the builders’ net host, ordering the elimination of Flick Solitaire from their platforms.
In line with VGIM’s report, Google did not reply to Roskomnadzor’s request. Apple acknowledged the censor’s letter however assured Flick Video games that it “didn’t have an effect on the studio’s standing with the platform”, as Osborn places it. Valve, nevertheless, added a rustic restriction for Flick Solitaire, with out giving Flick Video games the chance to contest or attraction the choice. Here is the textual content of their accompanying message to the builders, as handed on by VGIM.
Howdy Accomplice,
Your sport, FLICK SOLITAIRE (3690460), was decided by Roskomnadzor to be in violation of Russian necessities for distribution. We have added a rustic restriction to the sport in order that it not seems in Russia.
We additionally need to remind you that you just promised Valve beneath the Steam Distribution Settlement that your sport complies with all relevant legal guidelines. Due to this fact, it’s your accountability to do your due diligence concerning the place your sport is allowed to be distributed, and to tell us of any territory the place it can’t be.
VGIM say they’ve contacted Valve for a touch upon Flick Video games’s account, however have but to obtain a response. I will observe up with a request from RPS.
Valve have a monitor report for proscribing entry to video games on Steam to appease draconian governments. In China, the platform holder function a separate model of Steam with video games licensed by regulators, although an enormous variety of Chinese language gamers use the worldwide model of Steam to pay money for unapproved releases. Particular person circumstances of Valve bending for Chinese language censors embody the elimination of good Taiwanese horror sport Devotion from sale, after it was discovered to comprise a derogatory reference to the nation’s president Xi Jinping. As for Steam’s operations in Russia, Roskomnadzor boasted in October 2024 that they’d pushed Valve to take away “over 260 supplies containing unlawful content material”, with out going into specifics.
Valve have additionally been within the headlines recently for delisting or eradicating a swathe of video games with sexual themes on the behest of worldwide cost processing networks. Right here, as within the case of Flick Solitaire, the platform holder has usually prevented taking a stance on the video games in query, preferring to border all of it within the technicalities of compliance with governments or monetary establishments, whereas gesturing in direction of catch-all prohibitions on “content material that’s patently offensive or meant to shock or disgust viewers”. Valve are additionally presently at loggerheads with Italian builders Santa Ragione over their refusal to publish the horror sport Horses, apparently in response to a scene of a younger lady using a unadorned slave, although this pre-dates the cost processor crackdown.
Queer individuals in Russia face huge oppression. In December 2022, Putin successfully outlawed public expression of lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender individuals by signing a invoice in opposition to “LGBT propaganda”. In June 2023, Russia took steps towards reinstating the concept of homosexuality being a psychological sickness. It is presently unlawful in Russia for trans individuals to alter their authorized gender or obtain gender-affirming care. Similar-sex marriages or civil unions are additionally forbidden.
Valve have professed help for queer builders and gamers on Steam, including a LGBTQ+ retailer tag in 2019 and internet hosting LGBTQ+ gross sales amongst different occasions, however these seem to be trivial exhibits of constructive optics subsequent to the corporate’s on-going willingness to fulfill the calls for of repressive regimes. I will replace this piece if Valve reply.
