AI unintentionally declared war on video games this week in a colossal mess that ended up with Itch.io taken down, an AI threat management software going into damage control, and Funko Pops calling someone’s mum to tell them to take a tweet down… You simply can’t make this up. AI is here, and whether you like it or not, AI touches almost everything these days with its 6-7 fingered hands usually drawing the ire of creatives and consumers alike. In fact, even What’s It Like isn’t safe from the scourge of AI. I was accused of not being human, and one reader confidently commented that this was an AI channel. I do want to assure you that here at What’s It Like, I’m just a regular human doing human things like talking to calculators and looking for John Connor. How is AI destroying the industry? Come with me if you want to learn more.
For those who don’t know what Itch.io is, it’s an independent game marketplace where aspiring developers can set the rules for their creations and make some money. Itch.io is set up to put the developers first and doesn’t exploit or overcharge by allowing developers to set the revenue share price and has become a launching pad for some of the most creative and unique video games globally. On Sunday, Itch.io was unceremoniously taken down without warning, after AI-powered “Brand Shield,” software designed to hunt and take down copyright or brand infringements, flagged the domain as a phishing scam
This story would usually be a cut-and-dry “mistakes were made, now it’s fixed” but instead, it takes some WILD turns.
Usually, when an infringement takes place, a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice is sent and the offending page or listing in this case. 9 times out of ten, people like Itch.io will simply remove the page and do an investigation, something that even Itch.io acknowledged by saying “for transparency, we *did* take the disputed page down as soon as we got the notice because it’s not worth fighting stuff like that.” Instead, It appears Brand Shield decided to go nuclear and report the entire domain as a fraudulent site set up for phishing activity, and instead of following the DMCA, went over Itch.io to directly file a complaint to the registrar, not even bothering to acknowledge the offended page had indeed been removed.
This isn’t even the start of where this story gets interesting…
Understandably frustrated, Itch.io owner, Leaf Corcoran took to Twitter (or X) to inform users of the outage stating “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.” At the time of writing, the tweet has reached over 6.5 million accounts, which upset Funko a little bit who decided to try to get the tweet removed by calling Leaf’s mother and telling on him for making accusatory statements on Twitter. You can’t make this up… Not one to back down from a fight, Leaf kept the tweet up, and passionate gamers around the globe over started turning on both Funko and Brand Shield, and as you know, we gamers can be a… passionate bunch.
It gets better… or worse…
The dominoes started falling with Brand Shield deciding it was time to make a statement and justify their actions by saying “We want to address recent reports surrounding a website takedown. BrandShield serves as a trusted partner to many brands. Our AI-driven platform detects potential threats and provides analysis, and in this case, an abuse was identified from an Itch.io subdomain … The temporary takedown of the website was a decision made by the service providers, not BrandShield.” They then doubled down on their actions by shifting blame onto Itch.io by adding “We encourage platforms to implement stronger self-regulation systems that prevent such issues from escalating.” This went down about as well as one would expect, and the backlash was immediate, forcing Brand Shield to lock down the Tweet and prevent more people from replying. No apology was issued, no responsibility was taken, and the tweet was edited 4 times. It should also be noted that all 4 tweets in this statement were community-noted with the series of events, legal ramifications, and timeline.
Funko was a bit slower to respond, most likely busy stuck on the phone in a lovely conversation with Corcoran’s mum, but they managed to go into damage control 6 hours after Brand Shield did, by releasing the following statement. “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 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 Itch.io platform, and we’re happy the site was back up by this morning. We have reached out to Itch.io 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.” After reading through the responses to the tweet, it’s quite clear the gaming community is not as understanding as Funko had hoped, and the post has now reached 1.2 million users with community notes attached.
Both Funko and Brand Shield have taken a severe reputation hit over this event, and it’s just one of many AI-related disasters currently plaguing the industry with so many happening, I could count 7 that happened this week on my one hand. Call of Duty Black Ops has recently fallen into the firing line for allegations of an AI Zombie Santa with six fingers, an operator image with 7 fingers, and recasting voice actors after they left the project due to a lack of AI protections in their contracts. In a year full of layoffs and unmitigated disaster shuddering studios left and right, it’s safe to say that machine learning has a long way to go, and is certainly no friend of the video game industry.
