San Francisco, California — Popular indie game website itch.io has purged all of its user-hosted NSFW content, reports say, after credit card companies found the material too risky for business.
While the move has successfully put an end to gigabytes of content some say danced on the edge of pedophilia and rape, users remain outraged, claiming “Queer” and “LGBTQ+” creators are being unfairly targeted in the sweep.
“We have ‘deindexed’ all adult NSFW content from our browse and search pages. We understand this action is sudden and disruptive, and we are truly sorry for the frustration and confusion caused by this change,” read an update by itch.io team member leafo (@moonscript). “Recently, we came under scrutiny from our payment processors regarding the nature of some content hosted on itch.io.”
“We are currently conducting a comprehensive audit of content to ensure we can meet the requirements of our payment processors. Pages will remain deindexed as we complete our review…Part of this review will see some pages being permanently removed from itch.io.”
In recent years, itch.io has earned a reputation for being a free and easy way for content creators to upload and make money off of their self-published video games, books, and other digital media. It stands out compared to companies like Steam, which has a lengthy review process and charges fees in exchange for exposure and promotion on its platform.
This has led to the rise of games containing extremely graphic displays of sex and sexual themes, and includes titles like “Surviving Purge,” a gay tower defense game where characters engage in oral and anal sex in a stylized battlefield.
While these games may no longer be viewable via itch.io’s browse functions, the games are still very much accessible, and their creators can still sell them on the platform albeit with reduced visibility.
The sudden ‘deindexing’ of pornographic smut games on itch.io—which some have estimated reached up to 20,000 at the time of press—was prompted by the Australian activist group, Collective Shout, an organization dedicated to stopping the “sexploitation” of women and young girls.
They say a game titled “No Mercy,” which was present for sale on both itch.io and Steam, crossed the line by offering players the opportunity to engage in the wanton rape of numerous female characters. Marketing material for the game even promoted incest, and encouraged users to “Never take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“In this game, you’ll either become every woman’s worst nightmare… or rather: the best dick they’ll ever have. Your goal is simple: leave no pussy non-fucked, since that’s the only thing they all want,” read a blurb attached to No Mercy. “Fuck your mom, fuck your auntie, and even fuck your friend’s mom. Why not? Take what’s yours and show No Mercy.”
While that particular game was removed from UK, Canadian, and Australian markets after a grassroots campaign by Collective Shout, research by the pro-decency group discovered “hundreds” of other sickening titles on Steam and Itch.io which allegedly feature rape, incest and child sexual abuse. The discovery has prompted them to directly appeal to credit card companies to step in and clean up the mess.
“These games endorsing men’s sexualised abuse and torture of women and girls fly in the face of efforts to address violence against women. We do not see how facilitating payment transactions and deriving financial benefit from these violent and unethical games, is consistent with your corporate values and mission statements,” read a statement by Collective Shout to the corporate heads of Mastercard, Visa, Paypal, and other major financial institutions.
“We request that you demonstrate corporate social responsibility and immediately cease processing payments on Steam and Itch.io and any other platforms hosting similar games,” it continued.
However, not everyone is celebrating the removal of smut from websites like itch.io. In the aftermath of the latest purge, users online have been quick to blame Collective Shout, calling their activism a direct attack against “marginalized” communities, which include homosexual and ‘Queer’ content creators.
“With a click of the fingers over 20,000 NSFW games, books, and other stuff have been taken offline. It was 28K before it happened. Now it’s 7K,” cried user /u/ooombasa on Reddit’s /r/Behindthebastards, a subreddit for online antifascism. “…This is all done with zero warning, both to customers and creators. And all because Visa and Mastercard favour unhinged puritans from Australia (Collective Shout).”
“Itch.io was a vital stream for many queer artists, and that stuff is just gone now,” read the post.
“I think policies like this always end up harming marginalized creators, especially lgbtq+ creators,” said Reddit user /u/mortaine. The post had received over 400 upvotes in agreement, with many insisting that itch.io’s willingness to eject porn games from it’s library a “slippery slope” which would lead to direct attacks against the worldwide LGBTQ community.
Others include the conspiratorial belief that credit card companies are a front for “American Christo-Fascism” seeking to crack down on libertine sex romps online.
“Unfortunately this is one of the rare cases where the decision isn’t made for profit, but ideology. These companies are run by american christo-fascist groups, and no amount of loss of profit or customer complaints is going to get through to them,” read a comment from user /u/LucyShortForLucas. “First step is banning porn, second step is declaring anything LGBT as pornographic,” read another.
In years past, politicians and special interest groups attempted to crack down on violent video games by falsely linking them to a perceived increase in childhood aggression. While some have tried to equivocate Collective Shout’s latest efforts as a mere continuation of this crusade, there are many instances where the adult creators of sex games and cartoons have committed unhinged acts of violence and abuse.
In April, Australian game developer Alec Stephen West pleaded guilty to creating an online game where users were instructed to rape and commit incest with children as young as 12. The purpose of the game was to rape, reports say, and users who refused to engage in the sickening activity were met with a game-over screen.
Despite these stomach-churning themes, West was reportedly able to make millions from the game, which was downloaded thousands of times by worldwide users over three years.
In 2021, the Swiss-born pornographic cartoon creator Shaddai Prejean aka “Shadman,” was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon in Los Angeles. Shadman was a known figure in the digital smut community, also known as “Rule 34,” and gained notoriety for drawing highly detailed nude images of underage girls, Disney cartoon characters, and others, which included acts of rape. Shadman would upload them to numerous websites throughout the years, including Newgrounds, an Adobe Flash website with similar features to itch.io.
In June of 2024, former Cartoon Network animator and creator Kyle Carrozza, was arrested on charges of child pornography in Burbank, California. At the time of his arrest, Carrozza was fully involved with the creation of several children’s cartoons, including the “Mighty Magiwords,” “Adventure Time,” “Fish Hooks,” “Fanboy & Chum Chum” and “Teen Titans Go!” Per reports, the convicted pedophile was also responsible for voicing dozens of characters on the network.
The kiddie cartoonist would later plead guilty to all charges, earning himself a lifetime spot on the national sex offender registry, 2 years of probation, and must now surrender all electronics to authorities for a mandatory random search at any given time.
Ill Omens 
