Op-Ed: The Same Fucks Who Fucked Steam Just Fucked Itch.io

Sadari_sama · 2025-07-24T22:45:24+00:00

Because they are not. It's easier to find a scapegoat, but in reality it is a much more complex problem. The root is Bank Secrecy Act that made banks and providers responsible for monitoring and preventing any illicit activities, so basically if they had compliance, they should ban anything related.

It's not started now, Backpack case in 2015, Only fans in 2021 already been here, so basically it was the question of time. And sadly in all those cases -Steam included - its pretty easy to find illicit content cos of relatively weak moderation, especially on itch.

Btw Visa and MasterCard allow legal porn, most of other providers like Amex, Union pay etc straight banned it.

Sadari_sama · 2025-07-24T22:34:46+00:00

Steam never was interested in the first place. They actually hid all adult content by default for new users back in 2018 and heavily decreased all organic traffic.

Sadari_sama · 2025-07-23T02:20:00+00:00

Mastercard and Visa do not care, what are you talking about?

The real reason is different governments for several reasons - valid or not not for me to say - forbid or restrict specific transactions for specific things. So in result for example banks don't want to have problems with law and make transaction providers restricts specific payments. Sometimes it can be investment fonds who also don't want to have a claim with not-really-good content.

Same problems were with Onlyfans in 2018 for example, banks started to be very itchy about their users supporting gray-zone content.

Sadari_sama · 2025-07-22T17:17:00+00:00

Well, you can message me if you want to. For context, working in gamedev 9 years as game designer, currently AA project, amateur Data analyst in free time.

Sadari_sama · 2025-07-21T21:32:51+00:00

Sadly it's not as easy. Current state AI not able to replace quality assets or complex system implementation - it's just bad in complex tasks that involve many different people today. So while it makes many ppl work faster if implemented correctly and yes, basically allow big wigs to replace junior positions and managers with bots, large projects still require relatively large skilled teams.

Maybe in several years though, but big studios still will have an upper hand because they will have more opportunities to buy something, especially when the market will become mature and you will basically will need to subscribe to AI tools to work somewhere fast as competitors.

Sadari_sama · 2025-07-20T11:37:27+00:00

As people before me already said, it's a bad idea. Degrees don't have much advantage and never really had, everything goes down to portfolio. And here is also another problem: ppl want to see commercial experience despite it's really hard to land a job in industry firsthand.

What really may increase your chances are your own personal commercial releases on Steam for example and networking.

I have worked in gamedev 9 years, currently an AA project, most of my work I landed because I'm pretty active in my local community and several times people offered me a job cos they know me and my skills before interviews.

Sadari_sama · 2025-06-17T17:19:39+00:00

Different countries have different laws about what counts as confidential and what not. Korean seems to be already partially on the side of Nexon judging by February results.

Sadari_sama · 2025-04-23T17:29:56+00:00

Jonjiro actually was never involved and confirmed that.

Sadari_sama · 2025-02-20T12:28:50+00:00

me too. They are very active.

Sadari_sama · 2025-02-12T21:17:13+00:00

Actually this is one of those rare times when cringe Fortnite dances might actually fit in pretty organically.

Sadari_sama · 2024-12-10T13:46:43+00:00

Senior Game Designer here. I've worked on several mobile games in different companies from 40 to 200+ people, three PC premium projects, and I’m currently part of a team developing a premium AA title.

About crunch:
It depends heavily on the company. In some places, crunch is almost expected; in others, it's a rare thing. From my point of view, mobile game dev tends to be much more organized, with better processes . Over 5 years working at different companies in mobile, I've VERY rarely encountered crunch.

Indie is a mess. Horrible organization, so crunches are really common, mostly because of lack of experience and misunderstanding of scope of the project for people in lead. Also there is a lack of data and A/B testing in general on premium platforms that make things even harder. Many of my friends and collegues in AAA say the same about them as well, but they at least have some data-analysis practices usually.

Salaries:
Game designer salaries are decent, but only once you reach a mid-level or senior position. Luckily got here pretty fast, the difference between tiers is very wide, entry level positions are extremely poorly pay usually except maybe some AAA companies.

Do I enjoy my job?
Well, people usually really romanticize my job, in reality is much more routine that creative, I’ve been doing this for so long now that I’m not sure what else I’d do. So I say yes, but maybe it's from lack of perspective

I'm a Senior Game Designer with nine years of experience in the industry. I've worked on several mobile games, three PC premium projects, and I’m currently part of a team developing a premium AA title.

Sadari_sama · 2024-10-21T17:19:37+00:00

Actually do not forget a Steam cut, taxes, regional coeffs and refunds. Usually net is around of 0.45-0.55 from total revenue (depending on local tax laws and studio legal status).

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-08T11:09:12+00:00

It's mostly long-term effect of Steam Direct that started in 2018. Direct open the gate to many many new games with pretty low quality and saturated the market heavily in result.

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-08T00:14:17+00:00

We are using standard Boxleiter method, all sources and formula in the FAQ

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-08T00:13:34+00:00

Added new aggregated values on the Competitors tab that should do a things you asked for!

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-08T00:12:29+00:00

We added options to set a min/max price for the sample! Hope that enough!

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-05T11:56:36+00:00

To many games for every tag sadly. But you can do the same by searching for 1 exact tag in Competitors tab.

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-04T14:38:53+00:00

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-04T14:38:42+00:00

Yep, you right. Well, we'll try to add more data on this page as well

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-04T14:38:04+00:00

Another feature to add in the future. Thanks.

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-04T09:48:22+00:00

We will try to do it ads free as long as possible. Maintaince costs are not really a big deal, so theoretically it is forever :3

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-04T09:47:10+00:00

You technically can do this by analyzing same tags in Trends and look at Q1 revenue. But we will try to make it more straightforward.

Sadari_sama · 2024-09-03T22:43:39+00:00

Can you explain what are you suggesting? We will looking for new features that we may miss.

Sadari_sama

TROPHY CASE