Twitch bans AO-rated streaming as Hatred arrives on Steam

Streaming platform Twitch has said that users will not be permitted to stream Adults Only (AO) rated games on its service.

The ban applies to all games rated AO by the ESRB in the US, regardless of the region in which they are purchased or played.

The decision was made to bring more clarity to our Rules of Conduct,” Twitch’s PR director told The Daily Dot. Generally, games that fall in the AO-rated spectrum have always been out of bounds on Twitch due to the standard language of both the RoC and ToS. Instead of dealing with this on a per-game basis, we wanted to make a very clear standard rule set.”

The news comes on the same day that controversial shooter Hatred arrives on Steam, priced at 14.99.

The game was given an AO rating by the ESRB in January. There has been no official comment linking Twitch’s decision to the release, although the coincidence seems stark.

Very few games have ever received an AO rating. Those that have include the uncut versions of Manhunt 2 and Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy). GTA: San Andreas was also temporarily elevated from Mature (M) to AO upon the discovery of the ‘Hot Coffee’ sex mini-game.