On itch.io removing adult games and what to learn from it

While in a Japanese language class learning how to apologize in a business context, I checked my phone out of boredom and saw that people were reporting that their adult and queer games on itch.io were being shadowbanned and removed. Nothing I learned stuck in my head. I couldn't stop thinking about how the right had taken over the internet and how to hide my panic attack from the classroom.

The idea that Itch might fall to right-wing pressures and payment processors is nothing new. In 2021, Ana Valens wrote a popular article suggesting this outcome. She highlighted the critical vulnerabilities that Epic had during the infamous Epic vs. Apple lawsuit debacle. Agreeing with a game developer, she stressed that the lack of a commons allowed marketplaces like Itch to thrive but only if they adhere to the arbitrary rules of payment processors. After all, if the internet was actually a healthy commons, we wouldn't need spaces like Steam or Itch.

I like to think that I have taken this idea to heart. However, after all these years of writing about subculture media, including adult media, the sudden shadow-banning and erasure of adult Itch games still comes as a shock. I have not, in fact, internalized this idea.

As of this writing, itch.io has released a statement explaining their actions. They highlighted Collective Shout, a radical feminist organization that forced Steam to remove adult games from its platform, for pressuring payment processors into scrutinizing itch's adult games.

Some people may believe this is done for the greater good of children or something. However, as far as I can tell, many games that are removed or made inaccessible on itch are unlikely to cause harm. Take ebihime's visual novel Sweetest Monster Refrain: This game was only available on Itch, and it didn't feature any problematic content, yet it was suspended anyway. A majority of Nadia Nova's games is also removed without any reason explaining why as well. And we know that certain tags like "erotic" have caused games to be de-indexed from the page (i.e. shadowban). My own game submitted for Toxic Yuri VN Jam, Uranium Gays, is still available but it cannot be searched through ordinary means -- until I remove the "erotic" tag anyway. And as far as I can tell, developers whose games have been suspended cannot withdraw their money. This may be an unintended side effect of the itch codebase.

To me, all of these actions seem like hasty measures to satisfy payment processors' demands. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for why some games get suspended while others are okay. itch must also be taken aback by this event, as they are inconsistent in what they consider to be removable games.

The most charitable interpretation of the events I have is that they were forced to remove a few games in order to save the rest of the catalog. A kind of trolley experiment with queer games as the sacrifice. From a utilitarian standpoint, they may have made the best choice. It still sucks.

And I believe their lack of communication exacerbated some of the chaos. But I reserve most of my anger toward payment processors and right-wing lobbying groups like Collective Shout.

While it's important to sign petitions and show solidarity with fellow adult game creators, this raises the question: What will the future of the internet be like if adult game creators can't depend on itch?

I'm not really sure. Before all this happened, I was enjoying the Toxic Yuri VN Jam. There were many high-quality titles that deserved to be discussed, so I was preparing to write an article introducing the jam to my readers. I would still like to make that happen. However, it's concerning that a game I played could disappear tomorrow due to payment processors wanting to scrub even free queer games from the site.

And I think the fundamental problem of queerness and sexuality being considered something to be "cleaned away" by payment processors and right-wing groups makes it really difficult to find a solution that works under capitalism. It doesn't matter if a new platform emerges to meet our needs. That platform needs a way to pay adult media creators, and that means they have to rely on the same payment processors that fucked us over. It's just another solution that can easily be taken over by the right, as happened with itch and Steam.

The same could happen to other platforms like Discord and BlueSky. We should all be concerned about carving out a new future.

I want a future where we don't have to rely on platforms like itch or payment processors to sell or distribute our queer porn games. I draw a lot of inspiration from webrings. For example, the Yuri EVN Webring has introduced many players and developers to games they wouldn't have known about otherwise.

And I also find blogging about the queer games I've enjoyed highly rewarding. It's also helpful in guiding people to discover more works. It's great to develop a community you can trust to find good games, and perhaps collaborate to create something special.

There is, of course, one glaring problem with this utopian worldview: we all depend on money to subsist. Many queer developers make porn games in the first place to acquire some money for food and shelter. But I think it's important to collect ourselves into co-ops and mutual collectives to help each other out. We are not simply selling our games all by ourselves; we are in a community, fractured it may be right now. I want more things like the Queer Game Bundle to happen outside of itch.io.

I think a world like this wouldn't need itch.io, Steam, or any other storefront. We would be helping each other out by writing about and building on each other's works. Now more than ever, we need a giant collective looking out for each other.

Until then, we should focus on our immediate tasks. If there are games that need to be archived, I recommend using IF Archive for visual novels and interactive fiction. The Internet Archive may be useful for storing non-IF/VN games too.

And much as I hate to admit it, building a personal website is essentially a form of future-proofing. If your hosting service turns out to be an asshet, you can always move your website elsewhere without losing much progress. If you just want to blog, I recommend trying out Strawberry Starter (unironically linking to the Itch page). Make sure to also get a blogroll going, so we can all link to each other. An actual webring would be sick too.

Once everything is sorted out, I think we should return to developing and critiquing games. While I don't want to downplay this developing story, it's important to find joy in what we're doing as developers and players. If that means making more queer porn games to stick it to the right, I'm all for it, because I'm going to do the same.

This is going to take a while. There's still a part of me that wonders how I'm going to create queer games when so much is being censored. But that's also what motivates me to create more. It's important to create and discuss. While there are many great guides on how to resist the current right-wing censorship project through offline preservation, I also believe that creating and sharing art is equally important.

It's fine to get depressed and angry over this, but I also believe that we should also be fighting for hope. No matter where itch stands, I think we've relied on the site for too long. We need better spaces to distribute our queer porn games.

I don't want another situation like what happened with itch or Steam. I'm tired of reading about storefronts banning pornographic games because of right-wing nonsense. We need a better way to distribute online.

I'm still wondering what I can do. I'd like to create a chained game anthology with others, but now that itch is off the table, I need to think about where I could host the game. Maybe I should have thought about that sooner instead of always resorting to itch.

Sure, it's a lot of work, but I want to preserve our games and not allow any corporation to censor them. While the convenience of platforms like itch is nice and will be missed, I'm going to try hosting the games on archival and database websites. That way, we can strive for a better future.

I want to be constructive during these times of despair. I really do. I don't want to let the fascists win and censor our queer lives. I hope you share the same sentiment and help us achieve this world.

If there are any resources or things I can help out with, please let me know. I want to do my best. It's more important than ever to be proactive.