The developer of adult game Degrees of Lewdity claims they have been “soft-banned” from Patreon-like subscription platform SubscribeStar, positing ongoing action from conservative activists may be to blame.
Although the page is allegedly still available, a search for the game’s name now no longer returns any results, and anyone who does manage to find it will discover they can no longer submit payments or support the project.
“My Subscribe Star page has been soft banned, if that’s the term,” Vrelnir wrote on their blog. “It’s still there in a sense, but people can no longer support me, payments are no longer being accepted, and I cannot post the update there. I haven’t been informed why. I’ve contacted support, but have yet to receive a response.
“Due to the timing, I suspect this is connected with the recent troubles regarding internet privacy and freedom, in the UK in particular, with governments restricting access to adult content,” they added (thanks, TheGamer). “It’s part of an international trend to control the sort of content people can access, and create. I’ve heard a lot about activist groups spearheading this, about Mastercard and Visa pressuring governments.”
The UK reference likely pertains to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA), which is reportedly already making studios reconsider certain in-game features due to the new rules set out by the OSA.
GamesIndustry.biz has invited SubscribeStar to comment and will update as/when we hear back from the company.
This is the latest in a string of high-profile changes by digital storefronts like Steam and itch.io following pressure by its payment processors and conservative activitists to moderate adult content on their sites. Itch.io “deindexed” all adult NSFW content from its browse and search pages back in July after an open letter from conservative campaign group Collective Shout called for a stop to “payment processors profiting from rape, incest and child abuse games on Steam,” targeting the CEOs of PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and Japan Credit Bureau (JCB).
For more on the situation, read our feature, what’s going on with Steam and itch.io’s crackdown on adult content. Yesterday (September 15), we reported that Valve seemingly no longer permits games with “mature themes” to be released in early access.