Essential Insights from the Recent Itch.io Outage
- Funko and BrandShield deny any involvement in the outage of itch.io.
- The companies maintain their focus was on a specific page replicating Funko Fusion, rather than the entire platform.
- The downtime affected indie developers, limiting access to a wide array of games on itch.io.
Funko, known for its popular collectibles like Funko Pops, and BrandShield, a brand protection service, have both publicly asserted that they were not responsible for the temporary shutdown of the indie gaming platform, itch.io, which occurred earlier this week. Funko recently debuted its game, Funko Fusion, while itch.io has established itself as a key marketplace for independent PC games since its launch in 2013.
The incident unfolded over a few hours on December 8 and 9, during which itch.io was rendered inaccessible. Leaf Corcoran, the founder of itch.io, took to social media to accuse Funko of employing BrandShield’s AI tools to file a phishing report that ultimately led to the shutdown of the entire platform. The registrar responsible for itch.io’s domain is believed to have acted automatically based on this claim.
In response, Funko clarified that BrandShield’s actions were specifically directed at a page on itch.io impersonating the Funko Fusion official site, not the entire platform. Following the outage, Funko reached out to itch.io for discussions regarding the incident. BrandShield echoed this sentiment, explaining their AI system’s purpose is to identify potential threats, while suggesting that the decision to shut down the full site was likely made by external service providers. As of now, specific details of the incident remain largely unexplained, especially since access to the games has been restored.
Funko Addresses the Accusations from Itch.io
At Funko, we hold a deep respect and appreciation for indie games, indie gamers, and indie developers. We’re fans of fans, and we love the creativity and passion that define the indie gaming community. Recently, one of our brand protection partners identified a page on— Funko (@OriginalFunko) December 9, 2024
The abrupt restriction on access to numerous games serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities that indie game developers face. Itch.io is home to an impressive collection of over 200,000 games, alongside various game assets, comics, music, and non-gaming applications. For many developers, itch.io represents their only sales platform, providing both paid and free games, all of which were unexpectedly impacted.
The game that instigated this controversy, Funko Fusion, was released in September. Despite anticipation, it has not been well-received, currently holding an average score of 53 on OpenCritic. While some reviewers acknowledged the developers’ affection for the intellectual property, many criticized other aspects of the game, including level design and technical glitches at launch. Nevertheless, the developers of Funko Fusion have continued to support the game with downloadable content, the latest being two packs themed around Wicked.