Indie game marketplace Itch.io got taken down due to a faulty Funko AI

By Patrick Hearn Published December 9, 2024 8:34 AM

Gamer using Discord on a gaming desktop PC. — ELLA DON / Unsplash

Itch.io, a popular indie game marketplace, was down yesterday and today because of Funko, according to an X post shared by Itch.io. Itcho.io claims that the company behind Funko Pops uses “some trash AI-powered” software that generated a “bogus phishing report” to the site’s registrar. Although Itch.io responded, the registrar still disabled the domain. Itch.io believes the site was taken down by an automated system.

If you’ve never heard of Itch.io, the website functions like a digital marketplace. It allows users to sell and distribute indie games, assets, music, comics, and a lot more. It’s also one of the most popular sites for trying out lesser-known indie titles and exploring what’s out there. While it was down for a few hours, it appears to be live again, at least in some countires.

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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

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Itch.io did clarify that the page that set off the phishing report has been taken down. Fans on X were quick to toss around the word “lawsuit,” but for now, the company just wants to get the site back on track.

Thankfully, Itch.io didn’t lose any content while it was down. As far as we know, no data was lost. It was just inaccessible until the issue was resolved. It did mean that creators who rely on the platform did likely see a loss of income for a few hours. Itch.io currently hosts more than 1 million different products. Thankfully, if you have already downloaded the games, you can still play them even while the site is down (you can thank DRM-free titles for that).

While the site was still completely down, Itch.io followed up its initial post with another message, saying: “We’re probably going to wait this one out. We considered putting up a new domain, but there are implications with third-party services that make it not a trivial swap. In the meantime, if you know how to tweak your hosts file use: 45.33.107.166.”

If you know what you’re doing, tweaking the hosts file can be a potential workaround. However, the site does appear to be online for some people depending on what country you’re in.

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Gaming

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: all Vatican Medicine Bottle locations

Indiana Jones standing in the jungle.

There are dozens of notes, items, weapons, and artifacts to pick up while touring the world in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Most of these collectibles are good for earning Adventure Points or solving some puzzles, but there's only one that you can trade for a permanent boost to Indy's stats. Specifically, the Medicine Bottles hidden in Vatican City can be traded in for Adventure Books that either raise your HP or stamina bar permanently. That makes these little hard-to-find vials even more valuable than the ancient treasures you will find. If you want to get as much HP or stamina as possible, then you will need to find every last one. Here's the location of all the Medicine Bottles.
All Medicine Bottle locations
There are 15 Medicine Bottles in Vatican City in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. They will only pop up once you begin the A Remedy for All side quest, but you will also need to do the A Nun in Trouble and The Mad Priest quests to access some of them. We have marked all the bottle locations on the map below, as well as more detailed instructions below if you are having trouble reaching any of them.

1.
Once you finish the A Nun in Trouble mystery you will get Guiliana's Key. Take it down the Borgia tower and find the gap you can swing over with your whip and unlock the door with your new key. The bottle is just ahead on a box in the corner.
2.
While you're doing The Mad Priest side quest you will be given the Sewer Key and sent down below the city through the Tower of Nicholas V. Once through the locked gate, climb up and swing across the upper area onto a ledge leading to stairs going up into the palace. The bottle is at the base of these stairs.
3.
Go behind the Post Office building and look for the bottle resting on a wooden bench.
4.
Starting from the Belvedere Courtyard, head down the street toward the Post Office, and take a right into the short alleyway. The bottle is on the table next to a set of closed doors at the end.
5.
At the entrance to Via Di Belvedere, go into the Blackshirt's tent. There is a Medicine Bottle among the belongings on the long table.
6.
Climb up the scaffolding of the church being constructed near the Borgia Courtyard. Use the chandelier to swing to a window and onto a balcony, then platform to the left onto a rooftop where a single guard is posted near the bottle.
7.
From the Borgia Courtyard, go east from the entrance toward the Apostolical Palace. Find the area where the construction workers are stationed and locate the bottle on one of the barrels on the ground floor.
8.
Sneak or wear a disguise to enter the Blackshirt Barracks. Once inside the upper floor, the bottle is in a room just next to the staircase leading from the first floor.
9.
Head to the southern side of the Tower of Nicholas V and find a staircase up to the Passetto di Borgo. Take it all the way to the Castel Sant'Angelo and up another set of stairs to a dead end with this Medicine Bottle.
10.
Go through the main doors of the Apostolic Palace via the Borgia Courtyard and sneak or fight the many guards inside to get to the center of the room below the staircase. The bottle is on the little working area set up here.
11.
While you're in the Apostolic Palace, make your way all the way up to the top floor into the bright green room. Guards will be outside so you can either fight past them or sneak in through an adjacent room and across the balcony. Either way, the medicine bottle is on one of the desks against the wall.
12.
Back outside in the construction site outside the palace, go into the wooden storage shed and grab the bottle on the bench below the bulletin board.
13.
This bottle can't be obtained until you go through the main story far enough to meet Gina. Once you have and got out of the Underworld, use a zipline on the balcony to get over to a nearby rooftop. From here, find the hole in the fence to slip through into a tent where a group of guards are undressed to wash themselves. The bottle is on a bench next to a disguise you can snag if you haven't already.
14.
Putting that disguise to good use, infiltrate the restricted area to the north of Belvedere Courtyard and hug the south fence until you find a hole you can sneak through to get into a tent. The bottle is on the table in the middle of the room.
15.
For our final bottle, you must have the Blackshirt Uniform, so take a second to change. Now that you look the part, head to the Blackshirt Barracks and find the tent that needs the Blackshirt Key to open. Open it up and snap up the final bottle.
How to use Medicine Bottles to upgrade HP

Gaming

How Astro Bot charmed its way to becoming our Game of the Year

Game of the Year: Astro Bot

The process of picking one “game of the year” is a journey marked by second-guessing. Not a December goes by at Digital Trends where we aren’t agonizing over our annual top 10 list. Do we actually love Baldur’s Gate 3 as much as we think or are we giving in to the pressures of critical consensus? Is Elden Ring a lame year-end pick when we could be celebrating something like Immortality that still sticks with us years later? Are we weighing independent games enough in our deliberations? These are the kind of questions that keep us up at night as winter begins.

This year, we were faced with a similar mental puzzle. After 12 months of obsessively tracking our GOTY front-runners in detailed spreadsheets, one game was left standing: Astro Bot. The delightful platformer had won our hearts thanks to its precise platforming, good-natured attitude, and toylike design. It seemed like a no-brainer, but it was still hard to combat that lingering doubt as one question still haunted us.

Gaming

PS4 Pro vs. PS5

PS5 and DualSense art.

If you've been holding out on making the leap to the current generation but are feeling the pull to experience the best PS5 games your PS4 Pro can't run, we don't blame you. There's no denying that the new system is far more powerful than even the PS4 Pro, plus has plenty of great accessories and controllers to take your games to the next level. But besides access to all the current and upcoming PS5 games, what kind of improvements can you really expect, and is it really worth the extra money?

Here's what you need to know about Sony's latest console, and how much of an improvement you're likely to see should you decide to make the jump to next-gen.
PS4 Pro vs. PS5 specs