I am utterly disgusted at the removal of adult games! I never took this site for being prudish and removing choice from adults to view, download and enjoy game content they want to experience.
It's disgraceful!
Yessir, you can blame the group "Collective Shout" a group of feminist hellbent on depriving you of your entertainment simply because they don't agree with it. They lobbied payment processing companies to change their policies which has forced itch as well as others to comply to their demands. Which means as little as 40,000 people have collectively stomped on your balls and told you to like it. Me personally, im dressing my toilet up as a woman just so i can imagine pissing and shitting into their mouth and making them swallow it and they gonna hate that because they can't stand fantasies of "rape or incest" ... they probably wouldn't like fantasies of being pissed and shit on.
I don't think you really are aware what they were faced with. They had a choice - either to comply with a companies that control majority of transactions in the entire world or no developer on this site would be paid (you hear that right, no developer. As much as NSFW part is important for itch.io, that sure was way worse fate). We also don't know if they didn't get a legal letter beforehand. Good luck then when you at best might have a day to act. So they acted fast and delisted NSFW games and deleted those that will be problematic. Those that won't get deleted will come back and they already stated delisting is temporally. They also stated in one of the posts that people will be issued refunds, so they at least try to be fair even if they are essentially in lose-lose scenerio, because people will be mad regardless. If you want to be mad at ich.io and not at the companies that made it possible to happen (and which did already go after big players like Steam or DLSite), then be as mad as you like, but they won't stop on itch.io. Oh no, they will go for any site that offers even little amount of NSFW content until you will have nothing and then they will go for stuff that isn't NSFW to begin with. That's why instead of beating the dead horse that at best could inform users few hours sooner, put focus on something useful and spread the word about how transaction processors can just willingly decide what you can sell and what you cannot.
Itch isn't the bad guy. The real blame goes to Collective Shout, a right wing Christian organization that pressured payment processors to ban all adult games.
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You are expecting itch.io, a site that was never close to be so big as steam and has small team to moderate everything, to suddenly be able to resist the biggest companies in the world is disingenous. We can definitely criticize them for lack of transparancy or professionallism (which has been a bigger issue for them, look back at how they handled Gamejolt banning all nsfw content from their site on their socials) but this situation won't stop on itch and acting like they are responsible for the whole situation is baffling.
The expectation is communication, dude.
"Hey, this is what's happening. Here's where your money is. This is the timeline. We're really sorry, but we just don't have a choice in this. More information to come when we have it."
Do you know what we got?
"Emoji"
Do you know where our money is? Our livelihood and the next month's mortgage payment? 'In processing'. And if they decide the project doesn't qualify for the store anymore? Let's just say that there's been a history of this group simply 'not having the money anymore'. So don't pretend that this couldn't have gone a different way. And don't pretend that they had to act in a split second to save whatever it is that you think they had to save. They could be making a whole lot by witholding the full payouts from 20,000 nsfw games. Enough to make it worthwhile to nuke their own storefront and retire.
Trust me, I would love better communication as well but we have no idea how it unfolded behind close doors. They are Americian, they might as well got a legal letter and that would limit them greatly in contact (good luck messing with US law). And no one would be stupid enough to hold payment for 20k NSFW games, they are still held liable if they withhold any founds (which means you can sue them) and already informed that they will offer refunds. I am not saying it couldn't gone a different way, what I am saying is that we have no idea if it could even do so, we didn't see any documents or emails they have been sent so we are in this in complete blind, we only know if they wouldn't comply with their policies all devs would go down the drain, not just NSFW ones. They weren't the first to have that issue either. Still get your frustration but I don't want to focus on beating Itch.io over and over when no matter how unprofessional or professional they are, they still had to abide to a decision that wasn't even theirs to make.
Unfortunate they have a history of holding funds until sued. Almost all of the most popular games on this site have had to deal with payments in the six figures taking months to 'process' only to be pushed hours after a formal legal proceeding is filed. But is anyone going to sue for $200 bucks? The lawyer and court costs would remove the incentive. And most of these games are sitting at those levels of payouts.
This place is shady AF and has been for a long time. They have a veneer of caring about the industry, but they punish creators that take them up on their offer to take smaller sale cuts (why even offer 0% commission if you're gonna complain that people actually select it?) and conveniently forget to pay vast sums of money if they think they can get away with it. I don't see this as itch being pushed around, I see it as a probable-cause escape. I would love to be proven wrong, of course.