Itch.io is currently under pressure from credit card payment processors to scale back or eliminate its NSFW offerings, driven by demands from anti-porn organizations like Collective Shout. This situation has caused significant upheaval recently.

To comply, Itch is reviewing many of its adult-themed games that feature not just explicit content but also suggestive or subversive themes. These changes impact various creators, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community, as highlighted by indie developer Jenny Jiao Hsia, who noted that restricting access to these financial channels only worsens the situation.

The platform has communicated that they are “actively reaching out to other payment processors more open to such content” while acknowledging their smaller scale compared to competitors like Valve, which enables it to negotiate better in these situations.

As Itch explains, due to their extensive range of user-generated content (over two million products), they cannot rely solely on community tagging to identify inappropriate content, necessitating a broader review approach.

Furthermore, they caution that losing ties with payment processors could substantially affect all creators relying on their platform. Thus, to safeguard payment capabilities, Itch emphasizes the need for immediate action, although still ensuring creators maintain ownership of previously purchased games on their platform.