Stop Killing Games Creator on Steam and Itch.io Censorship: “It’s the Same Problem, Just a Different Flavor”

Ross Scott connects Steam and Itch.io’s recent game removals to his Stop Killing Games campaign (Image Via YouTube/Google)

YouTuber Ross Scott, best known for spearheading the Stop Killing Games movement, has weighed in on the recent wave of adult game removals from Steam and Itch.io — and while he’s not claiming to be an "expert" on the issue, he sees some clear overlap with his own preservation campaign.

How It Connects to Stop Killing Games

In his latest video, Scott explained that if a storefront removes your game without notice and without giving you a way to back it up, it’s essentially the same consumer rights problem Stop Killing Games is fighting against — just in a different form.

“If a storefront removed your game and gave you no ability to back it up and continue running it without further support, then that is exactly the situation stop Killing Games is trying to address. We've been mostly focused on games that have the online dependency built into the game. But if a store gave you no notice before removing your game, then yeah, it's the same problem, just a different flavor.”

What the Campaign Can and Can’t Do

Scott made it clear that his campaign is not designed to stop companies from delisting games entirely. Preventing delistings would require a law forcing platforms to keep selling titles, which he sees as "unreasonable and unrealistic.".

Similarly, reining in Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal’s influence on global commerce is "way, way bigger scope" than he thinks he could handle.

“I can’t even imagine where you would start with trying to rein in payment processors,” he admitted.

Instead, Stop Killing Games focuses on game destruction — cases where a title you already own is rendered unplayable, often due to online dependencies. The idea is to close existing legal loopholes and make sure consumers can still access what they’ve purchased, even after support ends.

The Bigger Censorship Picture

While Scott can’t directly address the current payment processor crackdown, he believes this censorship problem will "solve itself over time" because both players and publishers want to buy and sell the censored games, creating market pressure for solutions.

“If you bet on companies wanting to make lots of money, you’re rarely disappointed,” he added.

He also expects startups to be "frantically trying to fill the gap that credit card companies are leaving" because there's "so much money being left on the table."

He also uses this situation to illustrate how "hollow" alternative solutions like clear labeling or "voting with your wallet" are, since "voting with your wallet only helps if the game is allowed to exist in the first place."

Ultimately, Scott says Stop Killing Games could help with part of the censorship problem in the future, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. His campaign remains “compatible with people trying to do more” — especially those pushing back against the payment processor-driven bans.