Are you suggesting Itch to allow paid games to be downloaded for free? I’m not sure you are aware of what you are asking here. If I could pay my bills with “free advertisement” I would.

I suggest this idea only for free games (not for paid games); Bcuz most of the games that available on itch, are free.

If I may… When users filter for “Free” games, they get shown two kinds of games:

• Games that kindly refuse any sort of donation for their work. These are in turn hosted by itch.io without asking the dev or the downloader for any money - despite the fact that such items contribute to the 35,000+ $ US per month that hosting costs them. That cost is independent from the number of downloads or sales. (This is not an exact number but rather based on speculation, rumors and other such estimations.)

• Games that remind the downloader that they would prefer for a kind donation of a specifically stated amount of money, but will allow a download for free if the downloader feels entitled to it for any reason. Like just wanting to check if the keys are rebindable and if the localization is any good… Or being financially stable enough to own a internet-capable device for their sole source of entertainment but having to double-check their expenses at the supermarket before they get into an awkward situation at the checkout… Or simply because they feel entitled. But no matter what applies to them, they have now been informed how much the artist (who is most likely doing this as well as working a day job) would say their game is worth at the least and had the option to give them that money after only having seen the words and screenshots at the page. You know… Like every other game that they would have to pay for up front.

One of these categories is not like the other… I know we often say “Free game” because it’s easier to say, but most of us are acutely aware that there is a difference. Which you do not appear to know when you claim “Bcuz most of the games that available on itch, are free”.

And just so you don’t jump to conclusions: I’m not mad or angry, but I feel the need to point this out.

I don’t know what u r missing here!

People download torrent, play free games, get in love with some of those free games, come back to itch to thank or donate game developers, Find other games of the same developers, & play those other games or even buy them. [Its a great marketing for itch!]

What I’m missing is your explanation why you think having torrents as an alternative option to download the few games, that are neither age restricted nor accept donations, would be a big marketing move for itch - or anyone else for that matter.

I could replace “People download torrent” with “People download games directly” in your post and the situation you described would be the current situation. Like I said before: At no point in this thread did you point out the relation between Point A (having torrents) and Point C (“Profit!”). There are also a lot of other logistical issues, like the aforementioned age restrictions (and some newer developers maybe not tagging their games appropriately), version updates, getting all of the affected developer’s consent…

Let’s try this:

Suzy Strawman (age 12, Capricorn, USA) is very tech-savvy and wants to play a free, independently developed game that’s age appropriate - but “a good one”. As a tech-savvy person, she’s looking for a platformer with X-Box controller support, with a user-rating of 4/5 or higher (because that’s the new 2.5/5 now), that maybe has pink in the screenshots (because I happen to like pink), with a female protagonist, and that doesn’t run on Unity. (Because her friend Melissa from school said they have opt-out telemetry that isn’t even opt-out for many games and that John Riccitiello is a former Electronic Arts CEO.)

So where does miss Strawman go from here and how is her situation improved by your torrent idea in contrast to the current situation.