Crubcast

On today's episode we wanted to talk about what's going on with Visa, Mastercard, Itch.io, and potentially more and more storefronts in all mediums in the near future. We get into some sensitive topics, particularly with the discussion around the game called 'No Mercy'. There are chapter marks to skip that section, but there are a few mentions of traumatic subjects outside of that portion to help provide context for discussion's sake with what has been removed. We do have some goofy talk with the question of the week at that timestamp, if you just want some of our usual fare.

MORE PLACES TO FIND US
Crubscribe ► https://bit.ly/Crubcast
Get the show early and get exclusive content at our Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/crub
Our Crubcasts are recorded LIVE at https://www.twitch.tv/crub_official every Tuesday at 7pm Eastern, with EXCLUSIVE Pre- and Post-Shows
Join our Discord ► https://crub.org/join
BlueSky ► https://bsky.app/profile/crub.org
Come join our Steam group ► https://steamcommunity.com/groups/crubclub
Podcasts are available on Apple, Google, Spotify, and other platforms are available at ► https://crub.org

SHOW NOTES
For reading on what we're talking about:
https://www.ign.com/articles/itchio-suddenly-pulls-nsfw-adult-content-from-browse-and-search-pages-after-critical-pressure-from-payment-partners

Correction: Itch.io games are still accessible, per Itch.io Anyone who had access removed was urged to reach out to Itch, assuming the creator wasn't the one who removed the files themselves:
https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content

Correction: 'Consume Me' was not deindexed as a part of this:
https://bsky.app/profile/leafo.itch.io/post/3lv2pk2viz22q

Further reading on 'No Mercy' (content warning):
https://safeline.org.uk/news/no-mercy-pulled-from-steam-after-global-backlash/

TODAY'S CRUBCAST HOSTS
Chris: https://www.youtube.com/@MykonosFan
Justin: https://www.youtube.com/@WorldFamousJtart9
Moriarty: https://www.youtube.com/@reallycool
Trav: https://www.youtube.com/@ThatTravGuy

CHAPTERS
00:00 Genuine warning, we discuss many sensitive subjects this episode
08:21 Where this begins to go even more awry
14:27 No Mercy talk, content warning if you want to skip
20:05 End of the No Mercy discussion
26:26 All that said, Visa and Mastercard shouldn't get to decide
36:33 Are you okay with something you don't like existing?
45:49 A lighter swerve, a Crubscriber question of the week