The itch.io website is offline, with the blame placed squarely on Funko.
In a tweet, the indie game marketplace alleged that Funko, best known for its Funko Pop figures, used “some trash AI-powered brand protection software” that created what it called a “bogus” phishing report to the website’s registrar.
I kid you not, @itchio has been taken down by @OriginalFunko because they use some trash “AI Powered” Brand Protection Software called @BrandShieldltd that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar, @iwantmyname, who ignored our response and just disabled the domain
— itch.io (@itchio) December 9, 2024
itch.io claimed its registrar “ignored” its response and disabled the itch.io domain, despite taking down the undisclosed disputed page “as soon as we got the notice because it’s not worth fighting stuff like that.”
“Regardless, our registrar’s automated system likely kicked to disable the domain since no one read our confirmation of removal,” itch.io continued. “I hope you are all having a nice Sunday evening.”
IGN has asked itch.io owner Leaf Corcoran for comment.
The AI-powered brand protection software in question is BrandShield, which, according to its website, “detects and hunts online trademark infringement, counterfeit sales and brand abuse across multiple platforms: websites, social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest etc), marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, AliExpress etc), paid ads and mobile apps.”
The impact here is significant; with itch.io offline, all hosted projects are inaccessible, even to their owners. This goes beyond indie developers selling their games, too, with some using itch.io to host non-video game projects. One user responded to itch.io’s announcement tweet to say they had an assignment uploaded to the website, “and that’s what I turned into my professor so if it’s down they can’t give me a grade :(“
itch.io responded to say it is now waiting for its registrar to respond. “We’ve sent additional emails asking that WTF is going on,” it said.
In a subsequent tweet, itch.io said it will “wait this one out” and resist putting up a new domain. “In the meantime, if you know how to tweak your hosts file use: 45.33.107.166,” it tweeted.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.