Last week, the indie gaming platform Itch.io took a page from the Steam marketplace by imposing a shadowban on NSFW content from its storefront. The platform asserted it was ‘deindexing’ the material, but this meant that items classified as NSFW would not appear in search results, even when searching for those specific titles directly. Both platforms began this collective shadowbanning following the aggressive response to Zerat Games’ NSFW title, *No Mercy,* which was removed by Collective Shout, a grassroots campaign opposing the objectification of women and the sexualization of girls. This week, Itch.io seems to have reinstated ‘some’ of the shadowbanned content.

Fans quickly voiced their discontent after the deindexing announcement, turning to forums like Reddit to express that these gaming platforms were censoring developers and creators who share their work on these sites, leading to significant backlash. Numerous commenters on the forum warned that this “censorship” could extend beyond NSFW titles and might gradually encompass anything considered “inappropriate,” such as LGBTQ+ related titles, raising concerns among fans.

Following this decision, the IDGA (International Game Developers Association) issued a statement regarding game censorship, expressing, “We are concerned by the ambiguous enforcement of policies that delist and deplatform legal, consensual, and ethically-created games, particularly those from LGBTQ+ and marginalized creators. Developers deserve clear guidelines, fair notifications, and the opportunity to appeal.” Indie game developer Aggro Crab Games elaborated on this censorship in a detailed post on BlueSky, discussing how it can, and has, negatively affected developers in the field.

The backlash prompted Itch.io to change course, and today, the administrators released a statement declaring that free NSFW content will be reinstated on the platform. The statement reads, “We are re-indexing free adult NSFW content,” and adds, “We are still in ongoing discussions with payment processors and will be gradually bringing back paid content to ensure we can confidently support a broad spectrum of creators in the long term.” The statement is followed by guidelines on how to list your title on Itch.io for free in the interim until they are ‘permitted’ to gradually reintroduce paid NSFW content.

It is important to note that while some NSFW free content has been restored (a positive step for fans), a GOTY contender, *Mouthwashing,* still remains unsearchable on the website.