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"Ironically, someone on Game Jolt was recently using us as an example of marketplace that pays creators instantly"

I wonder, since as a former Game Jolt moderator I've received many complaints (even a short time before my days as a GJ moderator came to an end), about people who got into distrust since they had to wait for their money for some time. Although I was not in charge of GJ's marketplace I too know that GJ keeps your money for at least a week if not longer, and indeed fraud prevention and/or refunds are also the reason there (I never heard of the Direct To You payment method, actually).  By the way I am also a novel writer, and (Dutch) novels I sell also do not cause me to get my money instantly (depending on when a novel has been sold I may even have to wait for a month). 

"if DriveThruRPG sends your money instantly, that means they have no good way to handle refunds and fraud."

Which I would deem very very stupid, and a very good reason to never release anything there (at least not paid stuff), as I would be willing to wait for my cash to make sure no legal issues can arise. It's not only the seller who can try to swindle a site and its users, you know. Buyers can too, and cause a lot of trouble in the process.


Now on Game Jolt too claims came in that "other sites" (and yes, some of them even mentioned itch.io, how convenient) pay you instantly came in, and I was always a bit skeptical about it, and I guess now that I see this topic, I got my evidence, the claims were a lie (at least as far as itch was concerned) 🤣

Well, we do have the Direct To You payment method, but it comes with several caveats: you must be able to receive payments through PayPal and/or Stripe, handle any complaints yourself, and also pay all relevant taxes. Which nowadays can be especially tricky, with all the national and international regulations involved. Not to mention payment processors have itchy trigger fingers as it is. So if anything it's more of a legacy method, left in place for people who know what they're doing, and not recommended otherwise.

Hmmm, sounds risky. You sure the users of "direct to you" are sued and not itch.io if anything goes wrong?
I would not be fond myself to include such a feature if I were ever to host a site like this (no plans in the nearby future though).
Well I trust you guys also know what you are doing ;)

You'll have to ask our admins. :) We strongly recommend against using this option nowadays, for what it's worth.