The independent game platform, tch.io, is facing a growing problem of delays in the payment of funds, with several developers claiming to have waited more than 100 days for settlement. According to Rascal and GameDeveloper, social media have generated a similar number of feedbacks from developers, and Reddit has received hundreds of praises for the discussions, and developers have indicated that none of the passenger service orders submitted to the platform have been answered.
The independent developer, useanutsfrox, wrote: “For months, I’ve been in contact with tch.io’s customer service, and all the work orders are dead in the ocean. Having failed to meet its stringent tax requirements, I specifically went to the national tax office to submit official documents. A few months later, the platform marked my tax status as `verified’, but the money was still outstanding. As a result, our projects were severely damaged — development funds were cut off, cooperation was forced to end and the timeline completely disrupted.” The developer claimed to be over $6,000 in arrears and noted that “more than 200 developers are in the same situation”, most of whom are outside the United States and are concentrated in groups that use the platform to collect directly (non-Stripe or PayPal companies).
“No developer should endure four months of debt, unconnected and forced to beg for the proceeds of his work”, he added, “If you consider selling products at itch.io, think twice and look for alternative platforms. Now the titch.io is a trick.” The founder of the itch.io platform, Leafo, recently posted in the community that it had “optimized the payment process” and simplified the submission of queries by requiring the developer to “stop posting for help at the forum”. According to leafo: “At the time, accounts were often stuck in the status of tax certification pending processing. We have implemented a number of improvements, including the provision of a clear messaging function, to ensure that the accounts are not left in a position to communicate or seek a follow-up solution as tax information is pending or ineffective.”
It was revealed that tch.io had removed the NSFW content index from the browsing search page last week, and updated the adult content guide to meet the cooperation clause, as adult content was being reviewed by the payment service provider.