Overview

• Valve and itch.io have kept hundreds of paid adult games offline this week because of potential risks to their Visa and Mastercard payment access under a broad brand-protection policy.
• Mastercard denies pressing platforms to censor lawful adult content and says its network only bars unlawful purchases through merchant controls.
• Collective Shout’s campaign against games depicting sexualized violence led it to lobby payment processors and influenced storefront audits and delistings.
• Developers and gamers are staging email drives, petitions and free game bundles to demand clear appeal procedures and reversal of the removals.
• Alternative storefronts such as GOG and Zoom are seeking new payment partnerships to ensure lawful adult titles stay available.