Reached for comment, Stripe spokesperson Casey Becker said that the company does not comment on users. “Generally speaking, we take action when we conclude that users violate our terms of service,” Becker says. “We do not support adult content.” The company has a long-standing policy of not working with adult content services.
In a previous statement to WIRED, Collective Shout campaigns manager Caitlin Roper said the organization had had “no communication with payment processors” outside of an open letter. In a blog posted July 28, however, Collective Shout says it “approached payment processors because Steam did not respond to us.” Corcoran told WIRED that Collective Shout had not spoken to Itch.
According to experts, this is a powerful tactic known as financial censorship that weaponizes financial institutions’ aversion to anything controversial. It essentially sidesteps a platform’s own rules for what it will allow and puts that decision directly in the hands of payment processors, which impacts what companies are allowed to sell.
“Platforms have long had terms of service restricting content such as nonconsensual acts, rape, incest, and material that violates payment processor guidelines,” says Vela. “The concern today is not the existence of these rules but rather that their enforcement is adversely impacting games that do not actually violate these restrictions, often without warning or explanation.”
In response to one developer on Bluesky, Corcoran said the team is considering “adding an update to the dashboard to more explicitly show indexing status, when the dust settles.”
Corcoran told WIRED that he believes the confusion stems from Itch not providing clear information on users’ dashboard about indexing eligibility of pages. “A handful of devs incorrectly assumed their pages were affected by our July 24 change and posted statements on social media,” he said. “Press publications picked up these posts without any further verification, which led to an incorrect narrative being spread further.” Corcoran said that pages that were incorrectly assumed delisted were “due to our existing indexing eligibility rules outlined in our indexing guide, related to missing requirements like files uploaded, cover images, or in a few cases a ‘first time seller’ review process.”
The German games industry association, Game, has called developers’ artistic freedom “fundamental to games as a cultural medium.” Managing director Felix Falk said in a statement that restrictions from payment service providers and gaming platforms should not override what’s legally allowed, and that service providers like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal’s terms and conditions should not conflict with free expression. “Creative forms of expression or certain themes as games, such as diversity, must not be targeted by individual interests or campaigns from particularly vocal groups, as is currently being observed on Steam or Itch.io,” Falk said.
The Entertainment Software Association, which represents the game industry in the US, declined to comment. The UK’s trade organization for games and interactive entertainment, Ukie, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In response to the Collective Shout’s campaign and the subsequent fallout, the IGDA is gathering information from affected developers, which it says will guide its future actions. “Games that feature consensual adult content, including queer, kink-positive, or romantic narratives, are easily targeted under vague or overly cautious enforcement, often forcing developers into silence or self-censorship because platforms fear perceived risks associated with hosting legal adult content,” says Vela.
