Review Time
I will say i've gotten some bad codes from this company, but here's the important part: They didn't "fight" me about refunds. I gave them a screen shot of the code not working and it had my last "purchased" game and they refunded me and that makes a HUGE difference. Getting a bad code isn't so bad if they refund you without making a production out of it. I will say that other sites, like Gamivo, put me through utter hell and i never got my refund while Itch.io has been cool about it and that matters.
Terrible basically non-existant customer service. Over a week ago sent them a simple request and still have no recieved a reply. Their excuse of we're a small team simply dosen't cut it anymore. They're a massive website that's been around for years making enough money. Hire more people.
I will say: The platform IS great for sharing content between developers. A bit like a cloud sharing site. If you are developing a game with people. It's good for sharing progress. But that can be done with any number of services. This does allow to share larger files however.Anyhow: There ARE a lot of good games on this platform. But it doesn't excuse the horrendous practices they perform. To give a few examples:1: I was informed that charity content couldn't charge money for themselves. So, I corrected this and removed payment option as requested. Over a month passed and nothing happened. Now it's been over two years. And they're still "working on it".2: I was told I apparently forgot to turn on something in my user profile that allowed me to leave comments. I once again did as instructed. The change did not work. Nothing was done for a few months. Then I got a reply (after sending a SECOND mail.) that they were just lazy and gave up on trying to fix it. Telling me to instead just make a new account and try again.3: While logged in. A product accurately displayed as 2 stars from the 2 reviews it had gotten. While logged out however... the product SUDDENLY became 5 stars. I'm not sure why it does this. But it's very disingenuous. 4: Falsely advertised content is allowed to stay. I've seen several dozens of ex: Art packs, falsely advertised. As for example: "Containing X amount of pictures!". Like: "Over 100 pictures!" and then the actual pack had around 87 pictures. This was reported on 30+ art packs. Nothing. Happened. They are still up 3 years later.5: Similar to above, people can upload content *without* a description. Yes, you can choose not to purchase it ofc. But the fact someone can put a product up for sale with close to 0 information is just bad form. This is *especially* true for anything in their 18+ section. I've several times seen comics and similar just sold as "Comic" doesn't say how many pages, what content, what genre. I'm not here to purchase a loot box. I expect to be able to tell what I'm buying AND to be able to get what I pay for. I get it can be hard to run quality control. But this is akin to when Steam sold games that doesn't even launch. But it NEEDS to be stricter on what is enforced. Require a *minimum* of disclosing WHAT is in a product. I can agree to be more lax on "pay what you want" products. But even then: You could see something you really do not wish to see. But on paid products: There should be a bare minimum of someone doing a quick scan to see if the content match with what is advertised. Or if it even has a description.6: They support criminals. I'm not sure how much information I can disclose. But in short: They host content of people blacklisted by IP holders, for using their IP illegally. And they just let them sell it. One person that got a cease and desist AND was banned from Patreon for drawing minors... is gladly being hosted by Itch. Despite dozens of accounts of fraud. They are VERY hands off with their 18+ content.7: Reviews/comments are largely useless. Reviews are only visible to devs. Who: Ignore it. (If they are bad apples.) And comments are mostly selectively displayed based on who you follow.8: You can't really search for certain things. Unless you have a link to certain content, you'll never anything of a specific genre unless you look in the "recommended/related" section of those things. Some things are understandably hidden. But when you *specifically* search for them, and they still don't show up... that's a bit of a nuisance.I think that covers most of it. As said: It IS a good place for indie devs. Really, really slow. But its an alternative. If you traverse *outside* of that section of Itch.io however... it's like a proper storefront, that has a sleazy backroom with under the table deals.
Itch.io is a great player in the DRM-free indie game distribution space and has a lot of good intentions and values. And all of that is great until you have a problem, regardless of how patient you are.5 weeks ago I put in a support ticket during their racial justice bundle, I've yet to receive a response. The issue needn't have even happened as I pinged staff in their Discord server to warn them that the bundle would end soon, making my query much harder to solve. But apparently their Discord is not used for support, which is less helpful when their official channels don't seem to be sufficient either.The excuse constantly spun is they're a small team with thousands of queries from paying customers and developers to work through during the bundle, creating a massive backlog. Which initially I completely understood, I run my own small company and spikes in visitors have put me and my partners in constant fire-fighting mode, but what can't be excused is that they decided to follow this bundle almost immediately with two high profile events, their summer sale and 2020 game jam, bringing more attention and support tickets through their system.Itch.io need to remember that those who contact them are either people spending their hard earned money on their platform, or small developers who may depend on them for their income. Just holding your hands up and saying 'sorry, no time' is not good enough and is borderline dismissive. Recruit more staff, even if just community volunteers, or space your events apart so that you can respond to all queries before moving on to your next project, we are the reason after all that you exist in the first place.Valve and EA are known for having terrible customer service, but I've never waited over a few weeks and never been ignored entirely (and I won't even go in to how short and rude some of the itch staff can be).I love the itch platform and what they're attempting to provide to the indie game community, but if they continue this pattern of inadequately supporting their memberbase, we're more likely to have the fate of another Desura on our hands.He's hoping for big changes.
Bought and downloaded latest FPV freerider ‘recharged’ drone simulator software. Very impressed. Not at all expensive, but with graphics, ‘feel’ and realism (in terms of gravity/physics) vastly improved over previous version, perhaps it should be. Landscapes look absolutely fantastic - a dramatic improvement, with one looking alot like the pod racing vista from ‘The Phantom Menace’.Easy to download, no frustrations or annoying complications. Except the irritating buzzing noise of intense drone flying.
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
itch.io is a simple way to find, download and distribute indie games
online. Whether you're a developer looking to upload your game or just
someone looking for something new to play itch.io has you covered.
