Two of the most important digital video games shops have stopped promoting 1000’s of titles following stress from a coalition of anti-porn advocates and the world’s greatest cost processing corporations. It’s occurred earlier than, will doubtless occur once more, and is suppressing artwork, free expression, and marginalized creators.
Final week, the indie gaming storefront itch.io sent out a sudden notice to the creators that use the positioning to promote their video games, books, artwork, and different media; it had “deindexed” all content material with the NSFW (not protected for work) tag, that means works with that tag would now not flip up in itch.io searches, successfully making it inconceivable to find or buy them. Final week, Steam did equally, removing a swath of games from its platform after implementing stricter insurance policies associated to grownup content material.
In its announcement, itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran defined that the explanation for this drastic motion was stress utilized to the corporate’s cost processors by Collective Shout — an Australian nonprofit group that describes itself as “a grassroots campaigns motion in opposition to the objectification of ladies and the sexualisation of ladies.”
“Resulting from a recreation titled No Mercy, which was briefly accessible on itch.io earlier than being banned again in April, the group Collective Shout launched a campaign against Steam and itch.io, directing considerations to our cost processors concerning the nature of sure content material discovered on each platforms,” Corcoran mentioned. Launched in March earlier than being delisted by each Steam and itch.io in April, No Mercy was described by Collective Shout as a “rape simulator.” Its developer, Zerat Video games, denied this, describing it as a “3D choice-driven grownup visible novel with an enormous give attention to blackmail and male domination.”
Because of Collective Shout’s actions, in tandem with the cost processors, over 20,000 video games, books, comics, and different inventive works — confirmed through the Web Archive — functionally ceased to exist on the positioning (although bought content material stays in customers’ libraries as long as it doesn’t violate itch.io’s new pointers), imperiling the creators who rely on gross sales from itch.io. Along with NSFW content material, notable initiatives that didn’t have the tag had been caught up within the purge as nicely. One instance is Eat Me, a recreation about disordered consuming and the current recipient of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2025 Independent Games Festival, which was delisted.
There’s additionally concern that this deindexing occasion may have a disproportionate affect on queer creators, and within the speedy aftermath there was confusion concerning the distinction between “NSFW” and “grownup” content material, with a whole lot of LGBTQ+ tales and video games falling beneath the umbrella of the previous. “My SFW sci-fi comedian that’s no worse than a regular Marvel film additionally acquired deindexed… nevertheless it had the LGBT tag,” wrote Yuki Clarke, a comic artist, on Bluesky.
At any time when a platform broadcasts a blanket ban on grownup content material, LGBTQ+ creators are nearly at all times disproportionately affected, harming queer artists and invariably queer people. In 2021, eBay’s removing of its “Grownup Solely” part eradicated a preferred storefront for LGBTQ+ erotica artists and collectors. In 2022, Tumblr settled with the New York Metropolis Fee on Human Rights as a result of its 2018 ban of “grownup content material” had a discriminatory affect on queer creators.
A number of itch.io creators have mentioned that their SFW content material with the LGBT tag have been deindexed. Itch.io has responded to some of these claims on social media, saying, “The deindexing was decided by how creators categorised their pages: particularly if the web page was tagged as NSFW and as having grownup content material.”
Nevertheless, there have additionally been stories that content material with the LGBT tag however not the NSFW or Grownup tags were still getting delisted, creating confusion about simply what sort of works itch.io was pulling from its retailer and why. The Verge has reached out to itch.io for clarification. On Bluesky, in response to a creator claiming their LGBT books had been delisted regardless of not having any grownup or NSFW tags, the itch.io account answered, “Now we have a sequence of automated heuristics that may flag pages for evaluation primarily based on account habits to assist stop abuse.” It additional defined that the LGBT or queer tags wouldn’t have an effect on that system.
Itch.io acknowledged that the blanket delisting of all its grownup content material wasn’t ideally suited and has created concern amongst its customers. However the specter of shedding its cost processors required emergency motion. “The scenario developed quickly, and we needed to act urgently to guard the platform’s core cost infrastructure,” Corcoran wrote. Usually, cost processors take actions like this to make sure their merchandise aren’t getting used to buy unlawful content material. In Steam’s case, it updated its guidelines to incorporate a rule that prohibits publishing materials that “could violate the principles and requirements set forth by Steam’s cost processors.”
In an e-mail, Casey Becker, spokesperson for Stripe, responded that it doesn’t touch upon customers immediately however, “usually talking, we take motion after we conclude that customers violate our phrases of service. We don’t assist grownup content material.” Payoneer, considered one of itch.io’s different cost processors, declined to remark. The Verge has additionally reached out to PayPal, the final of itch.io’s listed cost processors, for remark.
Cost processors have often been the explanation behind content material bans. Although Collective Shout was the inciting agent, it’s corporations like Visa, Stripe, and others which can be liable for these sorts of acts of mass censorship. In 2014, PayPal threatened to remove all its services from Patreon as a result of the positioning hosted grownup content material creators. (PayPal would reverse this decision two years later, however Patreon nonetheless makes it troublesome for intercourse staff and porn creators to do enterprise on the web site.) In 2021, OnlyFans, a web site synonymous with porn, introduced that it could ban all sexually express content material to “adjust to the requests of [the platform’s] banking companions and payout supplier.” Six days later, OnlyFans would reverse the choice, citing assurances from its banking companions. Scratch a porn ban, and also you’ll discover a PayPal.
These processors have huge energy over their purchasers, and that affect can be utilized to realize targets that don’t have anything to do with client selection or security. Itch.io is compelled to adjust to their calls for or threat being unable to perform completely. “To make sure that we will proceed to function and supply a market for all builders, we should prioritize our relationship with our cost companions and take speedy steps in the direction of compliance,” Corcoran wrote in itch.io’s announcement.
Itch.io says that it’s within the means of reviewing and eradicating NSFW and adult-tagged content material that violates its phrases of service, whereas additionally updating these phrases. “For NSFW pages, this may embrace a brand new step the place creators should affirm that their content material is allowable beneath the insurance policies of the respective cost processors linked to their account,” the announcement learn. It has additionally up to date its July twenty fourth announcement to incorporate solutions to generally requested questions that had been circulating social media, debunking rumors surrounding whether or not itch.io was withholding funds and addressing why such drastic motion needed to be taken so disruptively. The corporate additionally says it’s engaged on discovering new cost processors.
Gamers and itch.io customers are preventing again, flooding Visa and Mastercard customer support traces with complaints. A database has been created the place creators can list their deindexed work for folks to browse and buy on various websites. Some creators are additionally removing their work from itch.io and are threatening to go away it altogether, as itch.io’s up to date NSFW coverage makes bans everlasting and irreversible whereas explicitly threatening subversive artwork.
“Our coverage will not be an invite to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable. Violations that lead to administrative motion are everlasting with no likelihood of attraction,” the creator FAQ reads. “Any funds on the account is not going to be eligible for payout. There is no such thing as a second likelihood.”