Steam and itch.io have recently come under fire from some of their payment processors for hosting adult content, leading to the removal of a lot of that content and a resulting backlash about whether these sorts of financial companies should have this kind of influence at all. So this week we did a primer on what exactly a modern payment processor is, how it relates to banks, where it sits in the tech stack that facilitates a modern purchase or other financial transaction, the sorts of terms and rates it offers to merchants, and more. We also ruminate on the specific situation playing out in the online games retail space, and also take a few more of your questions at the end of the episode.
The situation we talked about in the episode is evolving pretty rapidly; here are some of the latest updates since we recorded:
Info on how to contact payment processors yourself: https://aftermath.site/steam-itch-porn-censorship-collective-shout-visa-mastercard-paypal
itch.io reindexes NSFW content: https://itch.io/t/5149036/reindexing-adult-nsfw-content
Valve comments on payment processors: https://kotaku.com/mastercard-denies-pressuring-steam-to-censor-nsfw-games-2000614393
Here's the RTINGS article on types of OLEDs mentioned toward the end: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/qd-oled-vs-woled