Key Takeaways
- Itch.io was temporarily taken offline due to a dispute with Funko over a “bogus phishing report.”
- During the dispute, Funko reportedly called the founder’s mom, leading to online backlash.
- Both Funko and BrandShield responded, clarifying that the takedown request was not aimed at the entire itch.io platform.
Yesterday, indie game marketplace Itch.io was briefly taken offline due to a dispute with Funko. Itch claimed that a “bogus phishing report” caused by “some trash ‘AI-Powered’ Brand Protection Software” was to blame for the temporary outage.
Itch was later told that “The domain name was already reinstated earlier today after the registrant finally responded to our notice and took appropriate action to resolve the issue,” which should have spelled the end of the issue.
However, in a strange turn of events, Itch’s founder, who controls the company’s social media account revealed that, during the dispute, Funko reportedly called their mom.
“This Is Not A Joke, Funko Just Called My Mom”
For a while, things looked dire for Itch.io. Extended website downtime would have a severe impact on both the company and the developers that rely on its revenue, so the site started working on contingencies.
“Implications with third-party services” meant that, despite being considered, a new domain wasn’t deployed, with Itch instead opting to wait the outage out.
Following the downtime, though, when things had seemingly blown over, Leaf Corcoran, founder of Itch, revealed that Funko reportedly called their mom during the dispute.
A message received from his mom said, “Got a strange call from a company about accusatory statements on your social media account. Call me.” It’s a move from the Funko Pop manufacturers that was met with universal disdain online.
The tweet from the Itch.io Twitter account received over 3 million views and 115,000 likes, with many game developers and publishers sharing their support in the comments. The likes of Pirate Software, Devolver Digital, and more all threw their support behind the often-charitable website.
Funko and BrandShield Respond
After seeing the outrage, both Funko and BrandShield spoke out about the issue.
Claiming to have a “deep respect and appreciation for indie games,” Funko said:
“Recently, one of our brand protection partners identified a page on itch.io imitating the Funko Fusion development website. A takedown request was issued to address this specific page. Funko did not request a takedown of the @itchio platform, and we’re happy the site was back up by this morning. We have reached out to @itchio to engage with them on this issue and we deeply appreciate the understanding of the gaming community as the details are determined. Thank you for sharing in our passion for creativity.”
BrandShield also responded, saying:
“Our AI-driven platform detects potential threats and provides analysis, and in this case, an abuse was identified from an @itchio subdomain. We identified and reported the infringement, and requested a takedown of the URL in question – not of the entire itch.io domain. The temporary takedown of the website was a decision made by the service providers, not BrandShield.”
