As multiple different parts of the art, entertainment, and gaming industries are being impacted by ongoing crackdowns from various payment processors, it appears that Riot Games is being directly asked by Mastercard to monitor esports livestreams for negative statements against the brand. Mastercard is a long-time sponsor for Riot Games, dating back to its September 2018 deal where the payment …
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from the nice-try dept This whole attempted censorship of adult games on gaming platforms is becoming a thing. Collective Shout—a group out of Australia that wraps itself in a feminist flag while behaving like the religious right to get anything it doesn’t like out of the video game industry—put on a pressure campaign with payment processors, writing in to demand …
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As Steam and Itch.io continued to grapple with recent pressure by payment processors to withdraw NSFW games from their platforms, Mastercard has moved to distance itself from the ensuing censorship controversy, insisting it has not “required restrictions of any” game. But Valve says otherwise, pointing to a Mastercard rule saying the company can refuse to process anything it believes …
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Payment provider Mastercard has denied forcing video game platforms such as Steam and Itch.io to restrict the sale of adult and NSFW content. Valve and Itch recently curtailed the sale of adult content and said they were acting at the behest of payment services. Indie marketplace Itch specifically claimed those companies had been targeted by a pressure group called Collective …
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Mastercard has issued a statement claiming is has “not required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms”, despite allegations from both Steam and itch.io to the contrary. https://t.co/ORNC1ZIyck pic.twitter.com/T4B9cVUuLY — Mastercard News (@MastercardNews) August 1, 2025 In a post on Twitter/X today, Mastercard said the following: Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any …
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By Pritam Biswas and Arasu Kannagi Basil (Reuters) -Visa and Mastercard are expected to report higher quarterly profits this week on steady consumer spending, and analysts will scrutinize how demand for travel and discretionary purchases is shaping up in the face of tariff uncertainty. The results from the world’s biggest payment processors will help flesh out the broader financial outlook …
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Payment companies such as Visa, Mastercard and Stripe are facing public backlash, including from billionaire Elon Musk, for pressuring online gaming platforms to remove hundreds of games in response to a campaign from an Australian anti-porn lobby group. Itch.io, an independent gaming platform, last week removed all adult or not-safe-for-work (NSFW) games from appearing in its library in a hasty …
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