Itch has shadow-banned all erotic games, and some non-erotic games, on the platform with no warning, in the dead of night. While it’s not reasonable to expect Itch to defy payment processors when they have a duty to keep the platform viable for everyone, I hope everyone will recognize that there was no doomsday clock. Itch made the decision to do what they did the way they did, and they should have to own that. They could have given devs warning, but they made the decision not to. I’ve always supported Itch and made it the central pillar of my online presence as a game dev, and that has proved to be a mistake.

For now, both Hex and SS remain available to play and download, but are delisted and functionally shadow-banned. All adult content and the creators of such content that haven’t already been banned outright are currently under some sort of review, and we have no communication on when that’ll end. Games that are banned from Itch are no longer available to download, even for paying customers, so I recommend you download games you want to maintain your access to! I also strongly recommend you back up your saves on my games if you play on the web. You can do this by using the “save to disk” option in the game’s save menu (hotkey: Q in Hex).

While neither Hex nor SS contain any of the content that Itch is supposedly banning, horror games and LGTBQ+ non-erotic romance games are also being banned, so nothing is guaranteed. Please follow me on Bluesky and/or Patreon (you can join as a free member). The free web version of Hex and SS are available on Newgrounds as well. I’m working on a custom, self-hosted solution for hosting the patron editions, but that will take some time.

How can I help?

First, if you live in the US, please sign this petition! If you have the energy and social battery for it, contacting these payment processors to (politely) complain is a great idea. This post has phone numbers. Making noise and stink on social media also helps (as long as you don’t harass or abuse anyone, of course).

To help individual devs, just check in with them and see what they’re asking their players to do, like how I asked you to follow me on Patreon or Bluesky. Devs may have alternative platforms they are using. Being shadow-banned also means even the lucky devs like me who aren’t fully banned (yet?) are going to see a sharp decrease in traffic, views, and growth. Sharing and talking about your favorite games on social media will help keep us above water.

Important: Some devs, myself included, cannot receive payouts from Itch right now. If we end up getting permanently banned, we will never receive any of our money that’s stuck on the platform. For now, unless an individual dev communicates otherwise to you, do not buy their games through Itch if other options are available. I’ve deactivated payments through Itch for now for Hex and SS.