Indie gaming platform Itch.io has begun re-indexing some of the adult content it delisted last month due to pressure from conservative groups and payment processors. The move returns some content to the site’s searchable catalog, but only for free games that were not caught in the current payment debacle.
Itch founder Leaf Corcoran stated that the company is still in ongoing discussions with payment processors and will reintroduce paid content slowly to ensure it can support a wide range of creators in the long term. However, one of its earliest processors, Stripe, has confirmed that it will not support adult content that fits a specific definition.
Mastercard has also been involved in the controversy, stating that it allows all lawful purchases on its network but requires merchants to have controls to prevent unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content. The company’s policy for identifying and removing such content is based on “strong content control measures” on gaming platforms.
The removal of adult content from Itch.io and Steam has been unpopular with the gaming community and creators. Developers argue that their games were unfairly impacted due to pressure from conservative groups like Collective Shout. One developer, Cara Cadaver, stated that her game was removed because it contained “sexual content with depictions of real people,” despite its actual content being implied.
Itch.io has added a new “content warnings” system for NSFW pages and is seeking alternative payment processors. However, Valve’s response to the controversy remains unclear, as the company has not commented on changes to its platform since the initial news.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/itchio-restoring-free-nsfw-games