Honestly? We botched it” – Kickstarter apologises for its fiercely contested adult content rules, and for betraying its “f*ck the establishment spirit

Crowdfunding website Kickstarter – a place many video game projects have originated – has issued an unflinching apology after ‘botching’ new guidelines it released last week. The changes had sought to tighten the rules around adult-oriented projects raising money there, resulting in a fierce backlash and calls of censorship.

“Honestly? We botched it,” Kickster chief operating officer Sean Leow wrote in an update post. “The rules didn’t land the way we intended, and the response from our community let us know loud and clear that we got it wrong.”

The updated guidelines were issued because of clashes with Kickstarter’s payment provider Stripe, Leow explained. Simply put, Kickstarter and Stripe have different attitudes towards mature content, and what Kickstarter deemed okay would sometimes not be seen as okay by Stripe.

This led to “a growing number” of campaigns being okayed on Kickstarter and then suspended mid-funding by Stripe. The updated rules were an attempt to “close the gap” and provide one set of rules people could work by.

“That was the intent,” Leow wrote, “but the decision we made was an abandonment of the core counterculture, f*ck the establishment spirit of Kickstarter, and it left our community vulnerable.

“The decision we made wasn’t the right one, and in an attempt to create rules that could work across both Kickstarter and Stripe, we rolled out something that was too restrictive and too far removed from what we actually believe.”

As a result, Kickstarter has decided to scrap the newly issued mature guidelines and revert to the previous version, while it works on new guidelines for the future.

“This isn’t the easiest route,” Leow cautioned. It means approved campaigns can still be suspended by Stripe mid-funding – “that’s the reality of operating within a payment system we don’t fully control” – and even Kickstarter advocating for these campaigns might not change that outcome. To help creators avoid this, Leow provided a link to Stripe’s guidelines on mature content and Kickstarter has create its own guide for dealing with mature content in order to avoid antagonising Stripe.

“Though this route is an imperfect temporary solution, it allows us to stand in what we believe in and use the space between our rules and Stripe’s rules to keep fighting for creators,” he added. “That means continuing to push Stripe for flexibility, clarity, and consistency, working to carve out exceptions where we can, and finding solutions that don’t leave creators feeling censored before they’ve even launched.”

Kickstarter’s tussle with Stripe follows months of debate around payment providers such as MasterCard and Visa, and the pressure they exerted on gaming platforms such as Steam and Itch.io in order to more tightly control what mature games were sold there. Both platforms rolled out sweeping and somewhat vague changes as a result, causing well-intentioned adult games, including those from queer creators wishing to tell queer stories, to also get caught in the net.