Game designers are experiencing persistent payout issues from itch.io

As one of the few digital storefronts geared towards indie games, itch.io has garnered a reputation as a more developer-friendly platform. Since July this year, however, the site has also been marked by significant turmoil, beginning with its decision to delist several games with adult content — a change that Australian anti-pornography organization Collective Shout had claimed credit for. While itch.io has since begun re-indexing free NSFW games, the site has hit another snag in its operations in recent weeks: payout delays. 

“The last payout I received on Wednesday night came a full 25 days after I initiated it,” Amanda Franck, a game designer and artist, told Rascal via email. ”I checked on itch, and it looks like all the other ones took from about seven to 14 days.” Aside from Franck, several designers have also informed Rascal that they have seen later-than-usual payouts from their itch.io sales, a situation they say can affect their ability to pay the bills and other fees, such as royalties owed to project contributors.

One game designer and illustrator, Perplexing Ruins, acknowledged that itch.io's ease of use has been a boon to their work, but the payout delays have left them feeling frustrated. “It does seem like recently the delay of itch-collected payouts has gotten longer. I've seen some people comment on 30 days! As of this writing, my longest held payment is at 17 days, [and] the next one at 14 days. When this is your income for living expenses, it becomes stressful,” they explained. “I think people are quicker to click ‘payout’, because if you wait for a bigger one, that's added waiting time.”

Currently, itch.io supports two payout models: “collected by itch.io” and “direct to you”. The former model requires game designers to manually request for payouts via Paypal or Payoneer, but it demands much less administrative work from them. For instance, they only need to complete one tax interview on itch.io, with the platform automatically collecting payments from payment providers. On the other hand, designers opting for the “direct to you” model have to manually connect with every payment provider they’re working with to ensure that their transactions on itch.io are eligible. This means providing tax information to each individual processor, configuring their provider account to accept payments from specific regions, and then being liable for chargebacks. That said, this eliminates the payout period from itch.io, since they will be receiving their fees directly from the providers themselves. 

"The last payout I received on Wednesday night came a full 25 days after I initiated it."

“Essentially, ‘direct to you’ requires you to set up and attach your own PayPal and Stripe setups to your page, so itch is not as much a part of the process,” explained Christian Sorrell of MeatCastle GameWare. “For many creators, this may be more than they wish to do or can do, and generally, itch makes it seem not necessary for most creators.”

Making the situation more dispiriting, according to Sorrell, is the platform’s lack of communication. For instance, Sorrell says that they usually had to search through forums to better understand changes within the platform, such as a new feature or any changes in itch.io policies. “This is part of [what] has been happening separately, or in addition to, itch's ongoing payment processor woes around the adult themed stuff, which they have actually communicated somewhat on,” they pointed out. “I know they are a very small and generous team considering their sliding percentage scale on their take of sales, but implementing clear, regular communication with those building their library and sales should not be too much to ask.”

An itch.io representative has explained to users in the official Discord channel that the payout delays had been exacerbated by their support inbox being inundated by hundreds of emails, which arose from the Collective Shout controversy. At the same time, the delisting of NSFW games has triggered “a flood of users” requesting payouts simultaneously, which led to a massive backlog of payouts that the itch.io team must sort through manually. 

This is in addition to a recent bot attack that the site has been experiencing, which itch.io mentioned is also “causing problems in our backend”. Bot attacks aren’t new to itch.io — and the general web at large — but itch.io’s notoriously understaffed team has reduced the platform’s capacity to respond to queries and security vulnerabilities in a timely manner. This situation also hasn’t been helped by itch.io’s tax validation process. Some designers shared on Discord that their accounts were stuck in a tax validation state, which has also prevented them from receiving their payouts. In a new update, itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran says that new changes have been implemented to ensure better communication, as well as backend tweaks that would better synchronize users’ tax status with itch.io’s third-party tax verification platform. Rascal has reached out to itch.io for more details. 

“I think people are quicker to click ‘payout’, because if you wait for a bigger one, that's added waiting time.”

It’s also worth noting that payout delays persisted even before the Collective Shout controversy. Game designer Emily Allen has shared on Bluesky that fae was finally paid after 96 days in May — a few months before the abrupt delisting of NSFW games. Another designer, Brent Jans, has said on Bluesky that they had been waiting for 45 days in May. Until itch.io finds a more permanent solution to the chaos — one incurred by a perfect storm of rising internet censorship, worsening security conditions, and the lack of resources to weather it all — the platform will continue to struggle amidst these untenable circumstances.

“I have been aware of itch's issues for a while, and recently (on 28 June) published a personal third-party supplement called Lancer: NPCs Rebaked,” game designer Kai Tave told Rascal in an email. “I initiated a payout 30 days after release, and it took 17 days before it was finally sent to me. I initiated another payout 30 days after that one, and it's now sitting at 21 days without having been sent to me yet.” 

“Over the last couple months, I've had to spend $3,000 in veterinary bills, and now I have a payout for $3,700 sitting in limbo,” he continued. “I'm deeply grateful to not currently be in dire financial straits such that these bills have completely tapped me out, but I've been in such straits before multiple times throughout my life, and during those times if I was relying on itch payouts to help make ends meet, I can only imagine the anxiety that I would be feeling.”