Asking people to please wait, yet giving no for warning to the removals of games from the store and libraries, and seizing up funds from artists that do not match Itch's sudden puritan ways is kind of salt in the wound, don't ya think? Itch sure as heck didn't wait wait on that one, huh.
Viewing post in Give me my money or my purchase back!
It is at least somewhat understandable. Reading a lot into it, kind of gets people very heated on. Just kind of depressing is all. It is not like I make anything that got flagged, but seems be a very wide net. Hopefully one day it gets corrected or a positive ending. Just frustrating for a lot of people, and I am sure it frustrates Itch themselves too. I am guessing they did it to save majority of the site and content. Just sad that some processors and a small group get to have so much power in a realm they probably have no stake in you know? Sorry if came off aggressive, but just bad news after bad news this year kind of stacks up. I apologize for that.
So when will someone actually talk to the people making the decisions and get an update or clarifications?
Right now the threat is for all historic sales to be refunded which means the only safe way for creators to avoid getting hit with potentially thousands of dollars of refunds is to disconnect their payment details and effectively shutter their games just in case. Every dreg of information coming through seems to make it more and more likely that creators will get screwed and nobody seems to care enough to actually find out what is going to happen.
The "available information" is poor. Even the new restricted content list is so vague in places that its hard to tell what actually is prohibited:
- Bestiality or animal-related
The first part is clear, but the second part could mean anything is banned, from furries to farming sims to things like The Witcher.
What seems clear is that the people in charge are aware of how vague the rules are and are deliberately being vague so they can hit creators with thousands of historical refunds without warning people it'll happen. Which has basically turned indie development here into a real risk of bankruptcies and debt because the rules suddenly changed. Plus if creators have paypal set as their payment details, Paypal only allows up to 180 days for refunds, so if the plan is just to charge people for stuff beyond that, it'll be in breach of Paypals terms as well.
Again, with respect, someone needs to actually talk to the people up top and get clarifications because this has serious ramifications for a lot of people and the miniscule amount of actual information is crap.
In that case the only reasonable response to protect myself as a creator is to disable sales and downloads for my games and disconnect payment processors.
If Itch can suddenly ban a game and refund all sales for it then keeping sales, downloads and a payment processor is just unsafe and risks permanent financial damage. At this point its clear that Itch is keeping quiet about it simply because they want to hit creators with these refunds before they have a chance to do anything about it. Commit to refunds but push the costs onto the creators in a way that eases the financial burden on Itch while throwing people who sold their games in good faith under the bus.
I'd recommend all creators who had their games delisted should do the same until their game is either restored or banned.
I think creators should be more proactive letting those who had purchased that their downloads are safe. For there are people who can't find a game in search and assume that they can't download anymore and may try to chargeback or request a refund for something they still own. (Another problem area is that a lot of people ASSUME that a game that they downloaded without purchasing or claiming was in their library)
Well, unfortunately, until itch bothers to make any kind of clarifications, the risk of losing literally everything I own is not worth keeping the game available for sale. I'm living paycheck to paycheck and game sales helped a bit but not enough to make much of a difference in finances. But it's been a slow trickle for 3 years which adds up to a decent amount of money. Based on what itch have said so far, if my game gets removed, I could be liable to repay that entire whack in one go without even being able to argue my case. I know my game doesn't have the banned content, but when they have 21k games to vet, they're not going to bother looking too closely at each one before banning something off of first impressions.
Them forcing a refund for 3 years of sales would literally bankrupt me, and I suspect a lot of others will be in the same position.
I've been working on this thing for 3 years, I don't want to take the thing down, but if its a choice between letting people download it or being made homeless, then the game is the one getting it until the situation gets clarified. Creators need to put themselves first and not risk their actual lives by crossing their fingers and hoping their game escapes.
Itch. There hasn't been clarification on anything. Creators are removing their games because if what itch is suggesting is correct, then those creators could be hit with thousands of dollars of refunds. Its not worth risking it.
I've heard some people suggest that those devs shouldn't have spent the money from sales, but being honest, when you get paid for work, do you store all of that money just in case someone changes a rule and you have to refund everything? Right now, would you be able to pay back a lump sum of $5000 that you accumulated piecemeal over 3 years?
That is why devs are removing their games. They posted them when they were allowed by the rules. Now the rules have changed and the implication is that they are liable for every refund. People can't do that or even risk it until the situation is clarified.
Put yourself in our position. What would you do?
true on that end, but creators shouldn't be removing downloads to purchased content. There have been cases of some devs completing deleting their storefront pages and erasing content. If a user cared and could prove that they purchased certain content, itch could put that onus back on creators. I'm not saying creators shouldn't get clarification from itch and boycott in their own way, but they shouldn't punish people who donated to them. Say Ubisoft or Devolver Digital removed a game from Steam because they disagreed with the platform's policies, and also made all games unplayable without warning users. Should Ubisoft of Devolver be let off the hook?
no one is claiming that creators shouldn't spend money from sales. The big issue is when they remove downloads to their products, especially to those who paid for it. Customers should also understand that they shouldn't refund just to make a statement without thinking about the consequences to creators' income.