Indie video game marketplace Itch.io deindexed all adult and not-safe-for-work (NSFW) games from its search and browse pages this week, bowing to financial pressure from payment processors following a targeted campaign against explicit content on digital storefronts.
Activist Pressure Targets Payment Infrastructure
The platform’s decision stems from a campaign led by Collective Shout—an advocacy group that has previously criticized video games, rap music, and lingerie commercials. The organization launched an attack against both Itch.io and Steam for hosting “No Mercy,” a controversial title that depicts rape and incest.
In an open letter addressed directly to executive leadership at PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, and other financial institutions, Collective Shout argued that titles “endorsing men’s sexualised abuse and torture of women and girls fly in the face of efforts to address violence against women.”
“We do not see how facilitating payment transactions and deriving financial benefit from these violent and unethical games, is consistent with your corporate values and mission statements,” the advocacy group stated in its letter.
Marketplaces Yield to Banking Requirements
The activist pressure yielded rapid results across the gaming industry. Steam responded earlier this month by confirming it would ban games that “may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers.”
Facing similar risks to its core business, Itch.io defended its stance, explaining: “To ensure that we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers, we must prioritize our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance.”
Addressing the initial catalyst, the storefront clarified that “No Mercy” was only “temporarily available on itch.io before being banned back in April.” However, company representatives noted that “the situation developed rapidly,” forcing management to “act urgently to protect the platform’s core payment infrastructure” without giving creators advance notice.
Platform Audits and Developer Risk
Moving forward, Itch.io is conducting a “comprehensive audit” to guarantee that all titles hosted on the platform satisfy “the requirements of our payment processors.” NSFW titles will remain hidden from discovery features until this review concludes. Once finished, adult game creators must explicitly confirm that their content adheres to the policies of the specific payment processors tied to their accounts.
Devs Raise Concerns Over Harsh Penalty Policies
The abrupt enforcement sparked heavy criticism from content creators on social media. Many pointed to Itch.io‘s current terms, which dictate that adult content violations carry a “permanent with no chance of appeal” penalty, alongside the complete forfeiture of account funds.
Highlighting the severe terms, one game developer put it bluntly: “If you violate the rules, we take all your money. Not just the money from that work, ALL your money from EVERYTHING you’ve ever made.”
A Growing Trend of Payment Gatekeeper Censorship
This policy shift reflects a wider trend of financial entities dictating content boundaries for digital platforms. Gumroad previously cited banking partner restrictions when tightening rules on NSFW artwork, while OnlyFans famously attributed an explicit content ban—which it subsequently reversed—to pressure from banking networks.
In response to the growing corporate overreach, a Change.org petition has garnered over 137,000 verified signatures against Visa and Mastercard. The petition demands that major payment networks “stop censoring legal fictional content that complies with the law and platform standards” and “reject influence from activist groups that promote moral panic or misrepresent fiction as harm.”
