Following a campaign against adult video games, Steam and Itch removed or restricted titles that contained material that payment processors objected to. The payment processors were responding to pressure put on them by the group Collective Shout, which campaigns against p*rnography. Many feared that LGBTQ+ content would be included in the bans, and now, we can see that this very much is the case.
In an expansive report from Trans News Network, numerous indie devs say that their work has been restricted or removed from Itch as part of the ban on adult content. They say that this is even the case with games that don’t contain adult material, and it appears to be disproportionately affecting yuri and lesbian games.
That latter point was highlighted by journalist and content creator Ana Valens, who has been reporting on the ongoing censorship of adult material in games extensively. Sharing the report, Valens points out how an entire game jam – Toxic Yuri Game Jam – has been affected. As per the report from Trans News Network, more than half of the 200 games submitted as part of the game jam have been restricted or removed.
Queer Devs Share How The Adult Game Ban Has Affected Them
“I have no other means to support myself currently. Itch made me a little bit of money, but it already wasn’t a lot,” says Maddie May (also known as Milkboy), who had both NSFW and SFW material restricted on Itch. “Me and my girlfriend have been on the verge of homelessness for a while, and we survive completely on her income. I’m fortunate enough to have a place to live and a partner who makes enough to support what I do, but we just barely scrape by. Itch helped ease that struggle, if only a bit.”
Others who also found success monetising their work through Itch are feeling the sting. “All of my adult visual novels were deindexed,” says Brazilian game dev TangledVirus. “I did change the tags on them and they are now back to being listed but some still aren’t […] I have a Patreon but like, most of my income was from the games on Itch and the adult ones were the ones that made the most cash.”
As it stands, Itch says that it is allowing free-to-play adult games back on Itch, since they don’t have to go through payment processors. However, this doesn’t help those who make a living from game development, or those who have incorrectly had safe-for-work titles labelled as adult.
Ever since this began, gamers have mobilised against Mastercard and Visa for putting pressure on Steam and Itch. Mastercard has attempted to distance itself from the controversy, saying that it has not “evaluated” game contents or enforced “restrictions” on game devs and stores. It only admitted to requiring services like Steam and Itch to ensure that Mastercard is not being used in “unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content”.
Valve has hit back against this characterisation of events, saying that it was compelled to remove adult games that could harm Mastercard’s reputation. It also said that there are restrictions on adult games that are “offensive” and “lack artistic value”.
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