【Happy (2015)】

There's a decent chance that you never heard the name "Itch.io" until Apple painted a less-than-complete picture of the indie games store on Happy (2015)Friday, during its ongoing legal tussle with Epic Games.

The dispute sees two multi-billion dollar companies duking it out over in-app purchasing. Epic contends that Apple's restrictive policy which carves out 30 percent of most in-app sales for the iPhone maker, are anti-competitive and therefore illegal. Apple, meanwhile, maintains that its policy barring competing storefronts from the App Store is necessary and justified by the service it provides in offering a curated and secure experience that is ostensibly free from fraud.

I'm not here to weigh in on who's right and wrong in a legal war fueled by the immense wealth of two massive companies; better to deal with the fallout once it's all over. But I do want to spare some thought for Itch.io, which got roped into the court proceedings on Friday.

Why did Itch.io come up in court?

See, Epic operates the Epic Games Store (EGS), a storefront for PC gamers that also happens to host a small handful of non-gaming apps, including the Brave web browser, the Discord chat app, and yes, the software client for Itch.io's storefront.

It might seem a little strange for a game store to give its users the ability to download a differentgame store. But the thing that makes Itch.io different is what Apple zeroed in on in court.

When Apple's attorney questioned EGS general manager Steve Allison, who took the stand on Friday, the discussion turned toward this secondary storefront that Epic added to its store in late April. Apple seized the example to help bolster its point that the iOS App Store offers value in the form of curated content.

Itch.io, Apple argued, is a storefront that's flooded with "offensive and sexualized" content of the sort that would typically be barred from the iOS App Store. At one point, the attorney suggested that some of the games appearing there "are so offensive we cannot speak about them here."

How Itch.io factors into the legal proceedings matters less than the characterization of the indie store as some kind of hotbed for subversive and deeply problematic content. So let's get into it.

OK, so what is Itch.io then?

Itch.io describes itself as "an open marketplace for independent digital creators with a focus on independent video games." Generally, the store is known as a go-to destination for fans of video games who appreciate outsider art or experimental projects. It's particularly friendly to this crowd because of how the business of releasing and selling games is structured there.

Functionally speaking, Itch.io gives developers a significant amount of control over how their stuff gets sold. They're able to set the price (all the way down to "free"), choose the timing and form of their sales, and heavily customize their product pages. Importantly, there's no cost tied to any of this.

Creators are free to build product pages and make the software they've created available by just putting it out there. No approval process or anything else stands in their way. The store doesn't even demand a cut, instead engaging in a practice of open revenue sharing. In short, this means a developer can decide for themselves the percentage of each sale that goes to Itch.io — 10 percent is the suggested standard, but it's not a requirement.

(For reference, Apple takes a 30 percent cut, as do a number of other mainstream app and game stores, including the widely used Steam. EGS launched in 2018 with a standard-shifting split that saw Epic taking only a 12 percent cut — a lead that Microsoft followed with the Windows Store in late April 2021.)

But are there "offensive and sexualized" games on Itch.io?

Certainly yes, but also: This isn't the right question to be asking.

Pick a game store, any game store, and I can point you to games that some would characterize as "offensive and sexualized." It's a super subjective pair of labels to apply! I'm old enough to remember when Grand Theft Auto games were controversial by default, and deemed "offensive" enough to merit discussion during a Congressional hearing.

Now? Fans of Rockstar Games can buy a whole collection of classic GTA releases straight from the iOS App Store. Not to mention the long list of shameless knockoffs — which those who understand the games business would tell you are a much bigger problem than games that portray "sexualized" content.

So what's the problem with Itch.io then?

Nothing! The realproblem is Apple's questionable move to cast the store in a wholly negative light, as if games that are universally perceived to be "offensive and sexualized" — as if such a thing is even possible — are the store's raison d'etre.

In reality, Itch.io is great. It may not cater to a mainstream audience the way EGS or the iOS App Store. And sure, some people might be offended by things they find there. But it's still home to some 200,000 games — including many that are available on other stores as well. It's just a popular destination for developers and fans because of the way Itch.io favors creators ahead of itself.

It also does a lot of community-facing work. As people across the United States rose up in the summer of 2020 after George Floyd died beneath the knee of former Minneapolis police officer-turned-convicted murderer Derek Chauvin, Itch.io hosted a massive "Bundle for Racial Justice and Equity" games bundle that let people pay what they wanted for a lineup of close to 2,000 games. It was tremendously popular, and ended up generating more than $8 million, all of which was donated.

Itch.io also actively fosters creativity. The store has fostered an entire community of developers and fans, and it serves as a frequent home for "Game Jams" — a type of contest where people build ideas from scratch, usually jumping off from a thematic prompt. Not only are game jams often a wellspring for future big ideas, they're also perfectly placed on Itch.io, which is equipped to distribute these small, often experimental creations to a wide audience.

The open approach and creator-first mindset has also made Itch.io especially popular with creators who are LGBTQ, people of color, or who belong to other marginalized communities.

The big difference between Itch.io and the billion-dollar companies that argued about it in court on Friday is how it caters to creators and customers. As an open platform, Itch.io's moderation standards aren't the same as what you'd find on the iOS App Store or EGS. But that's a strength for the store, not a drawback. It's whyItch.io has become the favored home for indie developers to experiment.

This sounds great. How do I sign up?

You don't sign up! It's a store. Just go there and buy things (or download free things) that seem cool.

Itch.io, for its part, is taking the Apple vs. Epic moment in good humor. Like, really good humor. This is straight-up comedy for the store's social team.

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But like so many things in Itch.io's world, this big cultural moment is also now itself fodder for creativity. Not long after this whole thing started making the rounds on Friday, one of the store's creators put together an Unspeakable Games Jam (submission period ends May 17), riffing on the "so offensive we cannot speak about them here" moment from the trial, and the store's subsequent "Unspeakable Games" joke. (I think it's a joke?)

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So Itch.io is going to be fine, don't worry. This whole, weird situation is great publicity for a store that revels in all things weird, subversive, and outside the norm. You can check out the store for yourself right here.