Update: In a post on Bluesky, Itch.io responded that Mouthwashing has not been indexed since well before the recent sweep of NSFW games. “This game hasn’t been indexed since October 2024 since it doesn’t meet our indexing criteria,” the company wrote. “The developers are using a ‘Download’ button as a link to Steam. The developer took down any playable files form this page in 2024.”
Original Story:
Due to pressure from payment processors and right-wing advocacy groups, the marketplaces Itch.io and Steam recently announced that they would be delisting or de-indexing games that were perceived as “Not Safe For Work.” While apparently intended to disrupt the production and marketing of adult-content games, this move has already had a much broader impact: The critically acclaimed horror game Mouthwashing has been de-indexed from Itch.io as part of this sweep.
Martin Halldin, who works on audio and music for Mouthwashing developer Wrong Organ, posted on Bluesky that the title had been de-indexed from Itch.io. Halldin wrote that the game is currently still accessible if you have the link–it hasn’t been fully removed yet–but not showing up in search results can still have a devastating impact on indie titles.
After its launch in 2024, Mouthwashing racked up extensive acclaim and a number of end-of-year accolades. Its Steam reviews are sitting at Overwhelmingly Positive with over 28,000 user reviews submitted–a remarkable total for a game created by a small and previously unknown team. It is a psychological horror game, and the developer itself even warns on the product page that Mouthwashing contains “extreme violence, gore, mutilation and worse on PSX-style characters.”
Despite its obviously mature content and themes, Mouthwashing does not contain pornography and is not sexually explicit–which was ostensibly the main target of the campaign organized by advocacy group Collective Shout. Despite the group’s declared focus on preventing the depiction of “sexual abuse” in games, the campaign’s impact has been to seemingly induce a much broader push to “de-risk” from all adult content, no matter its subject. As a result, horror games and other titles depicting subjects far afield from anything sexual have also been affected.
Developers and fans of affected games have been attempting to organize counter-pressure to encourage payment processors to reverse their stance. Civil liberties NGOs like the ACLU have already joined the fight, too; the ACLU, for instance, is currently soliciting signatures for a petition against Mastercard.
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