Indie game marketplace Itch.io has abruptly “deindexed” all adult and NSFW games from its browse and search pages, making thousands of titles effectively invisible to users in a sweeping content purge driven by payment processor demands.
The Advocacy Group That Changed Everything
The step has been taken in response to an aggressive campaign by Collective Shout, an advocacy activist group that raised objections to games with sexualized violence against women. The association had sent open letters to major payment processors including PayPal, Mastercard, and Visa, arguing that Itch.io’s game “No Mercy” especially and generally many other games on the platform feature scenes of rape and incest themes, hence the payment platforms should boycott the gaming platform.
The significance of appealing these payment processing platforms is beyond smart. Itch.Io like many other gaming platforms use these payment players to process their subscribers’ fee and other “in-app” purchases. A boycott of the gaming site from these platforms would mean cutting the money cycle off the source. The strategy proved devastatingly effective. Faced with potential loss of payment processing capabilities that would cripple the platform entirely, Itch.io chose immediate compliance over content diversity.
The indie marketplace, known for hosting experimental and boundary-pushing games that larger platforms reject, suddenly found itself constrained by the same corporate policies that limit mainstream gaming stores.
Digital Disappearing Act
This deindexing means that adult games with offensive sexual content could no longer make an appearance in the browsing result. By definition, the content under controversy would remain available on the platform but the accessibility has been made extremely difficult with its discoverability plummeting to near-zero levels. For indie developers who rely on Itch.io’s browser-friendly interface to reach audiences, this represents an existential threat to their revenue streams.
Itch.io, in their defense, says that this extreme step was unavoidable to protect the payment processing relationship that is actually the safeguard of the developers’ livelihood in terms of making payments. Following the scandal, the company has launched a comprehensive audit of their game catalogue, with adult content creators required to confirm compliance with payment processor policies before regaining visibility.
The Ripple Effect Across Gaming
Such crackdown is a mirror of a healthy shift towards content sanitization. Another such case was when steam, another renowned gaming platform, started removing adult content from their site quietly and in phases. For Itch.io, the decision represents a fundamental tension between its identity as a haven for experimental indie games and the practical realities of operating a digital marketplace.
The platform built its reputation by hosting content too niche, controversial, or unconventional for mainstream stores, precisely the type of material now facing restriction.
Developer Backlash and Broader Implications
Unlike steam, Itch,Io had to take drastic and sudden steps to remove the adult content. Hence, it invited a backlash from the developers and users that they should have been given an intimation before a step this extreme. Some creators report having payouts withheld during the audit process, adding financial pressure to visibility restrictions. The adult content creators are in limbo as long as the company is undergoing the content audit. For them, the questions like, when or if their games will regain discoverability on the platform? There is no certain answer as yet.
This incident highlights the precarious position of digital platforms dependent on traditional financial infrastructure. As payment processors extend their policy reach into content moderation, platforms face an impossible choice: maintain editorial independence and risk financial isolation, or comply with external content standards that may conflict with their core mission and user base.
