Cancelling Bimbobiler

Today is a sad day, but I am unfortunately forced to cancel Bimbobilier.

Itch.io denying me the right to collect payments the same way as they do for every other developer was the last straw in Bimbobilier's sad saga.

Here is the exact problem, as per Itch's email (full text of the email at the end of this post)

This is an illegal breach of their Terms of Service, which, in California (itch is based in San Francisco), are considered legally binding.
I will make sure to appeal their decision and will even consider lawyering up if they do not resolve the issue

The email does mention an alternate way for me to collect payment, but to do so I would have to collect them through my Paypal, which would force me to reveal my name & address to all buyers, effectively doxing me to anti-porn crusaders and other weirdos.

Though their email is purposely vague and doesn't explain ANY of the reasoning that led them to this decision, it's extremely likely to be Bimbobilier and its hypnosis theme.

As a lot of you know, hypnosis in porn has been a common target of censorship. That's why I did not distribute the title through Patreon, as a preemptive caution to keep my account in the clear.


But today's unilateral and illegal decision by itch is showing me that Bimbobilier isn't just a risk in itself, it threatens my entire endeavor.
And as you can imagine, my priority is MILF Odyssey.


For that reason, even though I am in the process of disputing Itch's decision, I have come to the painful decision of cancelling Bimbobilier and ceasing distribution immediately, so as to not put everything at risk.
As Sun Tzu said, “He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot , will be victorious.”.
But be assured. Though we have lost this battle, we will NOT lose the war.


If any of you would like to request refunds for your subscriptions from SubscribeStar, I will gladly approve them.

I hope you will not be too disappointed, and I thank you for your support.
On the bright side, I will now have more time to focus on the Odyssey, which means Season 2 will be completed faster. I am not excluding having Bimbobilier's characters become Odyssey characters.

Feel free to contact me with your thoughts and questions.
Sincerely,
XCentric






Here is the full text of their email, and my response:

Hello,
We’ve recently reviewed your account, and unfortunately, we can no longer offer our “Collected by itch.io & paid later (aka itch.io Payouts)” system for your account. To continue accepting payments, you will need to switch your account to the “Direct to you” mode.


This decision was made after considering various factors related to your account, including nature of content, risk, disputes, and the resources required by our team to review payments associated with your account. To provide uninterrupted service to as many users as possible, we can no longer facilitate payments for your account through our Payouts system.


As a reminder, per our Terms of Service, your account’s activity must comply with the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policies of any third-party payment processors you utilize through your itch.io account. You can review those terms here:


To facilitate your account’s migration, your account will be blocked from requesting a new Payout unless the following conditions are met:

  • Update your Seller Settings so that your account no longer accepts payments using our Payouts system. You will need to either enable Direct Payments mode or select the option to disable payments entirely.
  • Request a final payout that includes your account’s entire unpaid balance. After this payout is processed, no future payouts will be processed.

For your final payout request, as we will be closing your account balance, the payment eligibility delay will be 30 days instead of the standard 7 days. This allows refunds and balance-adjusting events to clear.


If you continue to accept payments in the Payouts system, you will delay your account’s ability to request the final payout. Our team may also cancel any existing pending payout requests if you continue to collect a balance, to ensure that you can clear your balance with a final payout request. Please update your account settings promptly to avoid additional delays to your final payout.


You have 30 days to migrate your account to “Direct to you” if you wish to continue accepting payements. If you do not update your account within this timeframe, we will automatically set your account to no longer accept payments. You can update your account settings later if you decide to accept payments again.


Note that your existing customers will not be affected by this change: disabling payments will only prevent new users from purchasing your work. We ask that you also consider your existing customers when updating your account. Removal of content that customers have paid for may be in violation of our seller policies and can result in your outstanding balance being refunded to the buyers.


We’re sorry we’re unable to provide our full service to everyone, but sometimes we need to balance the needs of our community at large over individual sellers to ensure we can continue to operate smoothly indefinitely.


How to switch to “Direct to you”


To make the required change to your account, complete the following steps from your Account Settings:


Please keep in mind that purchases completed while the Payouts system is active on your account must be collected through a Payout. Switching your account’s Payout Mode will not impact payments that were collected before the switch, those earnings will still need to be claimed via a Payout request.




And here is my response:
That's not good enough of an explanation to abruptly and unilaterally breach the terms of our agreement (link: https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms )

Switching to "Direct to you" would cost me a significant portion of my income in payment fees, prevent me from ever creating a bundle with other developers, but most importantly, it would effectively dox me.
By doing so, you are putting my business at a significant disadvantage, without giving me any specific reason for it.

You are required to specify exactly which piece of content caused the problem (if any) and give me a reasonable time frame to address the issue, so I can either make changes or dispute your decision.

Moreover, though I will voluntarily do what I can to adapt the content in a reasonable time frame, I see nothing in your Terms of Service (April 15th 2023 version) that allows you to discriminate in this manner, putting you in breach of your own terms.
Your platform is known for its tolerance of content this nature, something you have used in the past as a marketing and PR tool on your official Twitter account (source: https://www.pcgamer.com/itchio-jokes-it-will-rename-adult-filter-to-unspeakable-content-after-apple-lawyer-criticizes-offensive-games/ ), so "nature of the content" I produce is clearly not at fault.

I do not need to remind you that under California law, the Terms we entered when I created my developer account are legally binding, and you do not get to unilaterally breach them if you no longer want to spare "the resources required by your team".

That is why I am requesting you re-enable Payouts on my account, or at the very least tell me what I need to address to have them re-enabled.

Hoping we can resolve this amicably.

Sincerely
XCentric Games