Updated on
In July 2025 itch.io hid its NSFW catalogue after payment-processor pressure; free adult games returned in August, paid ones did not.
In July 2025, itch.io deindexed and hid all adult games and other NSFW content from its browse and search pages. As Engadget reported, the store said it had to act urgently to protect its core payment infrastructure and could not warn creators in advance. A report in The Verge described the fallout as creators feeling betrayed, exhausted and fearful, with the removed material put at over 20,000 pages.
The trigger was not a government. Australian group Collective Shout aimed its campaign at the payment side, publishing an open letter to PayPal, Visa and Mastercard on July 11, according to The Conversation. Steam changed its policy on July 16 so that payment processors could set content rules, and itch.io hid NSFW titles on July 23. The 20,000 figure there covers both stores together, so treat it as approximate.
This is the part we find most telling. A storefront can write whatever content policy it likes, but if the processors object, the policy is whatever they say it is. Creators describe being pushed from Tumblr to Patreon to Gumroad and now itch.io, each time after payment companies started asking questions. Collateral damage was also reported: The Conversation notes that LGBTQIA+ creators were caught in the sweep, and Kotaku says many delisted games contravened no broad notion of acceptability.
What happened next was only a partial reversal. On 1 August 2025, Kotaku reported that itch.io had begun re-indexing adult games, but only free ones. Developers must tick a "No payments" box, which also disables optional donations. Stripe, itch.io's main provider, said it cannot currently process payments for content designed for sexual gratification because of restrictions from its banking partners, and founder Leaf Corcoran said discussions with processors continued and that paid games would return slowly. We found no later verified reversal for paid adult content.
Creators responded in different ways. Some ran mass call campaigns aimed at processors, others moved to their own websites, and others made their work free. One UK creator, PixelJail, told The Verge that the Online Safety Act's age-check requirements forced them to geoblock their sites in the UK.
Our reading is blunt: the lesson is about dependency, not about one store. A catalogue that lives on someone else's checkout can be switched off by a third party that never signed any agreement with the buyers or the artists. Self-hosting trades that risk for the work of running payments and compliance yourself. It is not painless, but it is the only option where the rules cannot change overnight.
Related articles from LaRebelión
Capcom's Future: Transforming the RE Engine into an AI-Generation Platform
Google pauses its open-source bug bounty as AI slop floods maintainers
OpenAI Under Fire: California Subpoenas Rogue Hacking AgentsOriginal source: The Verge
Produced with AI support and reviewed by the newsroom