Today many adult game devs received an email from itch.io stating that they would no longer be supporting “payments by itch.io”, this means that if devs want to get paid, they would have to provide their own payment solution.
What does this mean? A lot of devs rely on itch.io for income, this could be quite a blow for those relying on it.
Hello,
We’ve recently reviewed your account, and unfortunately, we can no longer offer our “Collected by itch.io & paid later (aka itch.io Payouts)” system for your account. To continue accepting payments, you will need to switch your account to the “Direct to you” mode.
This decision was made after considering various factors related to your account, including nature of content, risk, disputes, and the resources required by our team to review payments associated with your account. To provide uninterrupted service to as many users as possible, we can no longer facilitate payments for your account through our Payouts system.
As a reminder, per our Terms of Service, your account’s activity must comply with the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policies of any third-party payment processors you utilize through your itch.io account. You can review those terms here:
PayPal
Stripe
Payoneer
To facilitate your account’s migration, your account will be blocked from requesting a new Payout unless the following conditions are met:Update your Seller Settings so that your account no longer accepts payments using our Payouts system. You will need to either enable Direct Payments mode or select the option to disable payments entirely.
Request a final payout that includes your account’s entire unpaid balance. After this payout is processed, no future payouts will be processed.
For your final payout request, as we will be closing your account balance, the payment eligibility delay will be 30 days instead of the standard 7 days. This allows refunds and balance-adjusting events to clear.If you continue to accept payments in the Payouts system, you will delay your account’s ability to request the final payout. Our team may also cancel any existing pending payout requests if you continue to collect a balance, to ensure that you can clear your balance with a final payout request. Please update your account settings promptly to avoid additional delays to your final payout.
You have 30 days to migrate your account to “Direct to you” if you wish to continue accepting payements. If you do not update your account within this timeframe, we will automatically set your account to no longer accept payments. You can update your account settings later if you decide to accept payments again.
Note that your existing customers will not be affected by this change: disabling payments will only prevent new users from purchasing your work. We ask that you also consider your existing customers when updating your account. Removal of content that customers have paid for may be in violation of our seller policies and can result in your outstanding balance being refunded to the buyers.
We’re sorry we’re unable to provide our full service to everyone, but sometimes we need to balance the needs of our community at large over individual sellers to ensure we can continue to operate smoothly indefinitely.
How to switch to “Direct to you”
To make the required change to your account, complete the following steps from your Account Settings:
Change your Payout Mode to “Direct to you”
Add payment processors to your account
Please keep in mind that purchases completed while the Payouts system is active on your account must be collected through a Payout. Switching your account’s Payout Mode will not impact payments that were collected before the switch, those earnings will still need to be claimed via a Payout request.Thanks
Email from itch.io
Basically, itch.io are jumping on the bandwagon of other providers by saying “we don’t like adult game developers”
Does this affect you? Have you received a similar email? Let us know below in the comments.
I can tell you right now, they get tons of complaints from users paying for games, then new content not coming or only coming over years. If full games were dropping with complete stories and renders, this wouldn’t be as big of an issue. It’s a self inflicted wound. Image buying a porn dvd, then right after the bj right before he puts it in, it says working progress. This is the only field you can get paid before completing product. It leads to lots of complaints, and lots of refund requests, ect. It makes sense they go hey, we cannot continue the labor it takes answering emails, processing refunds, reviewing complaints, isn’t worth it.
I will preface this by saying that unfortunately I have no idea how, or if, it would work, however, and unfortunately not only in relation to this situation specifically, this is not the first time I find myself thinking that perhaps the creation of some sort of “trade union” for (small) independent (adult) game developers would not be a bad thing.
Maybe, in cases like this and others (such as happenings related to DMCAs or the banning of titles from sale on certain platforms without even having a chance to review the game or knowing in detail where and how circumstances unfit for publication were found), being part of a group with greater bargaining strength might help the devs.
Additionally, it also occured to me that also the PayPal issue with the Kickstarter founds of LIP: Lewd Idol Project of last year (where they got all their crowfunds “frozen” indefinitely and progressively fined until the all funds were depleted) could be something that hoplefully can be helped by that kind of organization.
This has happened in the past too at a smaller scale. Don’t be fooled by any statements from them. And people should start talking about how itch.io is unprofessional.
They virtue signal talks about GameJolt saying they support NSFW devs and then a year later doing the same to them.
There’s some pattern in the games they practically banned from their site. Most games itch banned seem cheaply made, for smut only, and have little artistic value. And most of them are 3D.
I would even suggest that projects with some fetishes that off-put the itch owner gets discriminated against and banned too (like futa).
Some of them were banned just because of low revenue share and earning a lot from itch, patreon, steam. And itch refuses to elaborate or change their ban stance even if creators offer to change their itch.io percentage to 30% while having generally a vanilla game with no “loli” involved.
So it shows it’s not just about the percentage split between the itch owner and creator.
Nobody getting any statement from them, because reality “Yes, we are angry and vindictive, so we ban and refuse to communicate” wouldn’t really look good for them.
What they are doing is a personal evaluation and judging, plus a vindictive move to punish creators for having low revenue share.
What’s so unprofessional about itch is, they give creators an option to set revenue share to 0-100% and punish them for taking advantage of that system that they (itch) put themselves.
Itch owner says that it is because of low revenue share, but this is because of the option they chose to offer.
Creators setting low revenue share is a consequence of their own (itch) actions (web settings).
Creators use low share because they think it’s like Patreon where 5-10% is alright, but in reality, Itch.io wants it to be set comparable to Steam (30-50%).
Anyways, this itch.io move to ban specific nsfw games was made on a personal level that was fuelled by vindictiveness.
People talk. Their reputation is ruined within the NSFW circle. And this will be remembered for a long time.
It seems pretty clear cut from the email that they do not have a choice. Neither imgur, not itch, not most small providers want to let go of that source of income.
But centralization of payments in the hands of a few US companies with ties with Christian conservatives makes it so their hands are tied.
Is there a trend in the specific content that has caused the banning? Sexual assault? Loli? How many developers have been impacted so far?
I am an adult game developer and knock on wood, have not been affected.
Itch has only given me vague reasons for this, and refused to go into details when I asked what the specific issue was.
I would like to see a list of affected developers to see if a pattern emerges.
Maybe the reason why they don’t go into specifics is to try to keep us in the dark about something shady or discriminatory.
It’s indeed about something shady or discriminatory.