Original article, December 9, 2024: The entire Itch.io went offline briefly earlier today, but the site appears to have been restored.
Reports of the site going dark spread with a post on the official Itch.io BlueSky account claiming that the problem was caused by Funko, the company behind the Funko Pop collectible figures.
“…they were using a garbage ‘AI-powered’ brand protection software called Brand Shield and created a fake phishing report to registrar iwantmyname. Registrar iwantmyname ignored our response and disabled the domain,” the post says.
However, as of this writing, the site appears to be back up and fully functional, suggesting that the issue has been resolved.
It’s unclear what Funko or Brand Shield discovered on Itch.io that triggered the phishing report.
Just last month, Itch.io took a stance on AI, introducing new requirements for developers to declare whether their games were created using any form of generative AI, including graphics, sound, text, and code. Introduced.
Update December 10, 2024: Funko issued a statement via X claiming that the removal request was targeted to specific pages on Itch.io, not the entire site.
The company said the page in question “mimics the Funko Fusion development website.” Funko emphasized, “We did not request the removal of the Itchi.io platform and are pleased that the site was back up and running as of this morning.”
Funko added that the page was identified by one of its brand protection partners, but not in response to Itch.io’s suggestion that it was “garbage ‘AI-powered’…software.” Ta.
“We have reached out to Itch.io to collaborate on this matter and deeply appreciate the understanding of the gaming community as details are finalized,” Funko concluded.
Meanwhile, GamesIndustry.biz reports that Itch.io confirmed through its X account that the site has been restored, stressing that it removed the disputed page after receiving Funko’s notification.
“It’s not worth fighting something like that,” the team wrote. “In any case, the registrar’s automated system may have activated to disable the domain because no one read the deletion confirmation.”
