Itchio was given no warning and immediate ultimatum. Steam has just added a policy that games must comply with payment processor policy.
This situation isn't fascism this isn't the government, it's an unregulated monopoly payment processor market, what we need is regulation. Regulation isn't made by some storefronts going under for standing in solidarity, it's a lengthy process through law.
You're right the whole site should go down, no one has a job or games while fighting with payment processors which will result in nothing unless major regulations are implemented. Which I support but understand won't happen for years even if multiple storefronts took up the fight. We should instead virtue signal solidarity and ignore reality and it's reprecussions.
Nice strawman totally ignoring the reality of the situation. Look at the situation from the hub, WikiLeaks, mangalibraryz, steam, dl-site (who tried and failed to fight payment processors,) Surugaya, patreon, only fans (who hilariously thought they could remove adult content to solve the problem) and so many other sites that have been pushed around by payment processors. I know you won't since you'd rather just get mad at something on face value, ignore the facts, and try to strawman. Though you'll likely say tldr or WOW so must effort based on your attitude but if anyone else sees these examples, understand itchio is just another example of payment processors deciding what we can buy.
Boycotting itchio empowers groups like collective shout even more, you show that them weaponizing payment processors can take down any storefront they deem to have content they don't see as appropriate.
Unfortunately going after payment processors is hard, it will take major law changes to break up the duology or create restrictions to what payments they must accept or having another big contender like crypto which I'm not a big fan of but does eliminate the control the big payment processors have over what people are allowed to buy.
I don't care about sentiment, that's one step from virtue signaling. If they did that people would just be mad that they are saying they denounce censorship but then do things that censor content. Screaming into the air absolutely, only actions matter my point was to take action against the perpetrator and not be focused on itch specially or steam specifically. If you think I'm defending itch you seriously misunderstand, I'm hoping to direct the blame were it actually belongs Visa and MasterCard. They don't even need to pit users vs storefronts, the users are getting mad while Visa and MasterCard use their monopoly to dictate what content a platform is allowed to show. I'm against misplacing blame, whether it's steam, itch, epic. The same think happened with people blaming epic for fortnite removal were the real problem was the ridiculous fees and monopoly of play store and app store.
Support initiatives like the change campaign posted
Instead of boycotting a storefront that has their control over content taken over by payment processors.
Steam backs down to payment processors, government agencies would even back down to payment processors. It is really unfortunate but they have nothing to argue about they would just be screaming in the air and likely cause their entire platform to be demonetized impacting so many more people. Payment processors just have an absolute grip on people, only MAJOR change to laws or breaking up the duopoly would help and those things will take years even if on the right track. Being mad at itchio is almost like blaming the victim, I know they caused other victims but if they hadn't agreed and argued there would be so many more victims.
I wouldn't stop developing your game, you can't let the moment stop a long term goal. I would still post to itch and run your own game store if/when possible. Unless your game is adult themed it is almost never going to be taken down don't let fear mongering deter your goal. This is unfortunate times due to groups like collective shout and the control payment processors have over everyone, itchio is just as weak to their whims as the users to the policies itchio has to put in place now. But yeah if you can avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.
I hate censorship but you misunderstand the impact of fighting against payment processors. Every game creator on this site would be without income for YEARS of court battles, the site would have no revenue to sustain itself and be spending millions in court, it could easily bankrupt itself trying to fight payment processors unless it plans to go all crypto which would remove 99% of sales anyway since crypto isn't wildly adopted.
Payment processors would laugh then keep collecting their rates from the other 99.99% of business. Games is a big industry but compared to all business is still a drop in the water, forget adult games or games that are being censored like ready or not or Detroit become human, they might as well be equal to the people getting mad on this thread. Meaningless in the grand scheme of things for payment processors.
Unfortunately they have little choice, a gamer boycott is meaningless vs losing their payment processor. Even if a boycott results in 99% loss of revenue, losing a payment processor is 100% lost revenue. They could fight but lose their revenue and be fighting for nothing, people should be against the MasterCard/visa duopoly controlling everything. They received an ultimatum to lose payment processing which would result in ALL games not being able to profit.
