Digital game storefronts, Itch.io and Steam, have recently begun obscuring or delisting games perceived as `Not Safe For Work` (NSFW) from their platforms. This significant shift comes under intense pressure from financial payment processors and various conservative advocacy groups. While the stated goal was to disrupt the production and marketing of adult-oriented games, this policy has already had far-reaching and unintended consequences, notably leading to the de-indexing of the highly praised horror title, Mouthwashing, from Itch.io`s search results.
Martin Halldin, who contributes audio and music to Mouthwashing developer Wrong Organ, confirmed on social media that the game had been de-indexed from Itch.io. Halldin noted that while the game remains accessible via a direct link, its removal from search results can severely impede the visibility and success of independent titles.
Since its release in 2024, Mouthwashing has garnered extensive critical acclaim and numerous end-of-year awards. On Steam, it boasts an `Overwhelmingly Positive` rating from over 28,000 user reviews—a remarkable achievement for a game developed by a small and previously unknown team. It is a psychological horror game, and its developers explicitly warn on the product page that Mouthwashing features “extreme violence, gore, mutilation and worse on PSX-style characters.”
Despite its mature themes and content, Mouthwashing does not contain pornography or sexually explicit material. This fact highlights a crucial disconnect, as the campaign by advocacy group Collective Shout ostensibly focused on preventing the depiction of `sexual abuse` in games. However, the campaign`s impact appears to have instigated a much broader push by platforms to `de-risk` from all adult content, irrespective of its subject matter. Consequently, horror games and other titles depicting subjects entirely unrelated to sexuality have also been inadvertently affected.
In response, developers and fans of the affected games are actively organizing counter-pressure to encourage payment processors to reverse their stance. Civil liberties organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have also joined the effort. For instance, the ACLU is currently gathering signatures for a petition aimed at Mastercard to protest these policies.