Final week, Itch.io delisted 1000’s of video games that includes numerous sorts of “NSFW” materialsrendering them invisible to anyone looking or shopping the location. Different builders reported that their video games had been taken offline fully. Among the many video games delisted was MouthwashingRock Paper Shotgun’s recreation of the 12 months 2024.
In an announcement, Itch.io defined that they’d delisted or eliminated NSFW video games in response to strain from cost processors and a marketing campaign from Australian activist organisation Collective Shout, who broadly need video games that glorify sexual violence and the sexualisation of women faraway from sale, however who even have connections to sure right-wing Christian teams that goal to abolish authorized intercourse work and punish queer sexual expression.
Collective Shout had beforehand succeeded in forcing Valve to vary their Steam insurance policies to present banks and cost processors management over the definition of “grownup” content material on Steam. Quite a few Steam video games have been delisted or faraway from sale as a consequence, although nothing just like the deluge of de-indexification we have seen on Itch.io.
Lots of Itch.io’s delistings could also be momentary. The platform holders might re-index them following “a complete audit of content material to make sure we are able to meet the necessities of our cost processors”. As soon as the audit is completed, they’re going to implement “new compliance measures” whereby NSFW recreation creators “should verify that their content material is allowable beneath the insurance policies of the respective cost processors linked to their account”.
Forward of saying any new laws, Itch.io have silently up to date their developer phrases and situations with “a non-exhaustive listing of prohibited themes current in card processing networks”. Devs might want to adjust to that listing with a purpose to publish their work on Itch.io. It is somewhat open-ended, even with out the caveat that it’s “non-exhaustive”. Right here you go:
- Non-consensual content material (actual or implied)
- Underage or “barely authorized” themes
- Incest or pseudo-incest content material
- Bestiality or animal-related
- Rape, coercion, or force-related
- Intercourse trafficking implications
- Revenge porn / voyeur / hidden cam
- Fetish involving bodily waste or excessive hurt (e.g., “scat,” “vomit”)
To proceed my ideas on Collective Shout’s arguments from final week, I do not assume video games that glorify rape and actively contribute to a tradition of would-be or precise rapists deserve publicity on storefronts like Itch.io or Steam. Nonetheless, there’s nothing on this listing to differentiate such a recreation from a recreation that tells a narrative about rape with out endorsing it, or from a BDSM fantasy that stresses the significance of consent in real-life intercourse. “Sexual trafficking implications” is equally ambiguous as as to whether a recreation is allowed to function trafficking as a plot theme with out advocating for it.
Nonetheless, I can say with some confidence that Mouthwashing infringes on a few of these prohibitions. So, I might argue, do Metallic Gear Stable: Floor Zeroes, The SimsSonic The Hedgehog 2006, The Crush HomeMortal Kombat, Ultimate Fantasy VIIand Viva Pinata. Itch declare that they’re reviewing video games case by case, however nonetheless, in case your work is remotely NSFW, maybe it will be most secure to keep away from releasing video games on Itch.io in the intervening time.
Collective Shout have now confirmed that they “known as on Itch.io to take away rape and incest video games that we argued normalised violence and abuse of ladies”. They’ve additionally, apparently, distanced themselves from lots of the Itch delistings, arguing that they did not demand that the platform take away “all” NSFW content material, and that they’re now receiving extra abuse and threats on-line as a consequence.
“We known as on Itch.io to take away rape and incest video games that we argued normalised violence and abuse of ladies,” Collective Shout write. “Itch.io made the choice to take away all NSFW content material. Our objections had been to content material that concerned sexualised violence and torture of ladies.” In addition they cite an article in The Australian from twenty sixth July during which founder Melinda Tankard Reist claims (within the paper’s paraphrase) that Itch have gone “far past her request to ban sexually violent video games”.
As with the Steam delistings, Collective Shout’s case may be stronger in the event that they printed full particulars of the person video games they’ve requested Itch.io to delist, and why they contemplate them dangerous – notably given their monitor report for mischaracterising different video games they’ve tried to have faraway from sale, like GTA 5 and Detroit: Past Human. It may also assist in the event that they voiced their help for the numerous queer creators who’ve been swept up by Itch.io’s mass-delisting, in line with their earlier condemnations of homophobia.
