Indie-focused online game market Itch.io has deindexed all grownup content material from its browse and search pages on the behest of fee processors.
The corporate shared the information in a weblog submit and stated it has develop into a goal of the Collective Shout marketing campaignwhich has accused fee corporations together with Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal of “taking advantage of rape, incest (and) baby abuse video games” on Steam and different platforms.
Itch founder Leaf Corcoran famous the storefront turned a goal after it hosted a title referred to as No Mercywhich was quickly offered on the platform earlier than being banned in April 2025.
“We perceive this motion is sudden and disruptive, and we’re really sorry for the frustration and confusion attributable to this alteration,” wrote Cochran. “(…) Our capacity to course of funds is important for each creator on our platform. To make sure that we will proceed to function and supply a market for all builders, we should prioritize our relationship with our fee companions and take speedy steps in the direction of compliance.”
Itch rolled out the change with out notifying builders and has apologized for the “abruptness” of the pivot. The information comes after Steam equally banned “sure sorts of grownup content material” and blamed the scenario on restrictions imposed by fee suppliers (through 404 media).
“We’re presently conducting a complete audit of content material to make sure we will meet the necessities of our fee processors. Pages will stay deindexed as we full our evaluation,” continued Corcoran. “As soon as this evaluation is full, we’ll introduce new compliance measures. For NSFW pages, this can embody a brand new step the place creators should affirm that their content material is allowable underneath the insurance policies of the respective fee processors linked to their account.”
The evaluation will end in some pages being completely faraway from the storefront. Accounts impacted by the purge will obtain an electronic mail from Itch’s assist deal with informing them of the approaching elimination.
“We ask to your endurance and understanding as we navigate this difficult interval,”stated Corcoran. “I am sorry we can’t share extra right now as we’re nonetheless getting a full understanding of the scenario ourselves. We are going to submit a observe up on our weblog if the scenario modifications.”
Sport Developer has reached out to Itch for extra info.
