Steam Adds Official LGBTQ+ Tag For Game Market

Major gaming storefront and platform Steam has become a little more Pride friendly this week as they introduce an official LGBTQ+ tag for their games. It took a bit of pressure from a game developer first, though.

First reported by Kotaku, It began when indie developer Yitz contacted Valve in regards to their upcoming visual novel, To The Dark Tower. They expressed a desire for a proper LGBTQ+ tag be added to the system since it would be very appropriate for their game and for games like it.

A Steam rep recommended they bring the idea to the Steamworks forums, which they did. Not long after, the tag was made into an officially supported tag.

Steam has hundreds of officially supported tags in their store. While user-created tags exist, they don't have the marketplace integration, hub support, and various other perks an official tag has. With proper tag support being a vital aspect to a small title's success on Steam, supporting LGBTQ+ will make a notable difference for qualifying games.

According to Kotaku, there was some concern when making the decision over whether or not people would harass or abuse the tag. After some consideration, they decided that people are gonna be shitty no matter what, choosing to support it anyway.

Most games under the tag are romantically focused, but it also includes various other games where the LGBT-related inclusion is minor or not immediately apparent.