{"id":39977,"date":"2025-08-01T18:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T18:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/39977\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T18:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T18:35:07","slug":"itch-io-is-restoring-nsfw-games-as-long-as-theyre-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/39977\/","title":{"rendered":"Itch.io Is Restoring NSFW Games\u2014as Long as They\u2019re Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, indie gaming platform Itch.io began re-indexing some of the adult content it had delisted last month<\/a> amid pressure from conservative groups and payment processors over its hosting of NSFW titles. While the move returns some content to the site\u2019s searchable catalog, it impacts only those games, comics, and other offerings that are already free and therefore not caught in the current payment debacle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still in ongoing discussions with payment processors and will be reintroducing paid content slowly to ensure we can confidently support the widest range of creators in the long term,\u201d Itch founder Leaf Corcoran wrote in a post on the site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Itch and gaming platform Steam began delisting or outright removing games<\/a> with adult content in July. Conservative group Collective Shout targeted both platforms as part of what the group says was an effort to get what it alleges are \u201crape and incest\u201d games removed from the platforms.<\/p>\n

Valve, which runs Steam, began removing hundreds of games after Collective Shout put pressure on its payment processors, urging the banking institutions not to do business with the company over the content on its platform. When the group did the same thing to Itch\u2019s payment processors, Itch reportedly delisted<\/a> more than 20,000 titles with NSFW tags, sparking protest campaigns<\/a> against financial institutions like Visa and Mastercard. The delistings have impacted thousands of creators, including marginalized developers who identify as queer, trans, and BIPOC.<\/p>\n

If Itch can’t come to an agreement with its payment processors, the company will effectively be unable to sell anything to customers. Corcoran says that one of its earliest processors, Stripe, has confirmed that it \u201cwill not be able to support adult content that fits the following definition: \u2018content designed for sexual gratification.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement given to WIRED, Mastercard says it has \u201cnot evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity\u201d on gaming platforms. \u201cOur payment network follows standards based on the rule of law,\u201d spokesperson Seth Eisen says. \u201cPut simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how the company was identifying illegal adult content on the platforms, Eisen directed WIRED to a policy<\/a> the company posted in 2021 stipulating that vendors use “strong content control measures on sites where our products are accepted.”<\/p>\n

Itch\u2019s and Valve\u2019s removals have been unpopular with both the gaming community and creators. On Steam, some developers believe their games have been unfairly impacted as part of Collective Shout\u2019s efforts. Vile: Exhumed creator Cara Cadaver tells WIRED that she believes her game was kicked off of Steam because of \u201csexual content with depictions of real people,\u201d which she says is inaccurate. \u201cAnyone who got the chance to play the game knows it is all implied,\u201d Cadaver says. \u201cThe game has a lot of gore and violent themes, but that was the reason given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadaver says that not being able to release on Steam \u201cdrastically decreases\u201d the game\u2019s potential reach. \u201cSteam is the largest video game storefront,\u201d she says. \u201cLess people will be able to play Vile or even know it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valve has not responded to multiple requests for comment. The company confirmed to PC Gamer<\/a> in July it had removed some games that violated \u201crules and standards set forth by our payment processors and their related card networks and banks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corcoran\u2019s post on Thursday noted that Itch will be adding a new \u201ccontent warnings\u201d system for NSFW pages. The founder previously told WIRED that the platform is seeking alternative payment processors. Valve has yet to address changes to its platform since the initial news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, indie gaming platform Itch.io began re-indexing some of the adult content it had delisted last month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,9804,18417,8359,714,61,2881],"class_list":["post-39977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-censorship","tag-gaming-culture","tag-lgbtq","tag-politics","tag-technology","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}