Hello everyone, I'm KiwiState and I make a living developing adult games. What’s been happening on the forums needs to stop.

As we all know, NSFW games have been deindexed, and the amount of hate directed at Itch.io as a result has been overwhelming. Not only are they trying to find a solution to all of this, but they also have to endure the flood of toxic messages people are posting in their chats.

What many don’t realize is that Itch.io is the last stronghold for indie NSFW developers. GameJolt went through something similar in the past — but instead of fighting back, they chose to ban all adult content, and in doing so, avoided the fallout.

Itch.io could easily do the same — wipe out all NSFW content, spare themselves the stress, and protect the SFW games on their platform, which are now also at risk if the payment processors pull their support entirely.

If tomorrow the team at Itch.io decides that standing up for creators who insult and attack them isn’t worth it, many of us — myself included — will be out of a livelihood.

So please, take a breath. This happened very quickly, and sure, their public posts may not have been the most polished, but at least they’re trying. They’re doing something, and that matters.

Itch.io is genuinely the last platform standing. Not even Nutaku or other adult-focused sites bring in the kind of audience Itch.io does — especially for those of us starting from scratch.

That’s all I wanted to say. Please stop the hate, and let’s wait for further updates from Itch.io.

On the one hand:  Absolutely I agree!   Itch got this basically dropped on them with little to no notice, and did what they had to in order to keep the lights on.   This has been a problem that has been handled by various platforms in the past (Patreon went through somethin' similar a few years back) and Adult Entertainment sites have been taking people's money since the internet existed.  This is a minor, temporary problem that we don't need to freak out about, and I suspect most people won't remember what the big deal was this time next week.

On the OTHER Hand:  This KEEPS HAPPENING.  The number of times payment processors have pulled the rug (or almost pulled the rug) out from a major site, causing its adult content creators to flee or panic, has gotten ridiculous.  People are going to forget this happened in 1-2 weeks, and then some OTHER place is gonna get hit.   And it's gonna keep on getting hit.   Get mad!   Fight the power!   etc. etc.

I agree 100%.  I've seen a lot of developers say "I will never publish my games on itch again. I'm taking my work elsewhere. I can't forgive this,  You've lost me forever"   etc. 

And I get it! I do.  But to me  it comes across as very entitled, dramatic and short-sighted.  I was thrilled when I discovered itch. There is no other site that supports indie adult games.  When people say they'll go elsewhere-- where?...   I know "we don't have a choice" is a bleak and upsetting stance, but itch has been handling the situation well in my opinion and  we truly all need to just be patient and let them create solutions.  

Finally some other constructive talk about this matter.

Payment processors are their enemies, if the community as well becomes enemies of Itch, i'd not blame Itch for ditching the whole block of such games.

I'm starting to think that Collective Shout pawns are infiltrated as users in disguise to increase the shitstorm intensity that the users are generating and destroy the platform.

I even heard that there are extremist groups on Steam who are targeting NSFW users/developers with toxic behaviours and review bombing... be wary!