Verified Twitter impostors causing trouble for gamers

Twitter’s new paid verification system is causing trouble for gamers and game companies as verified users impersonating brands cause a stir.

Twitter’s new paid verification system is causing trouble for gamers and game companies as verified users impersonating brands cause a stir.

Twitter users have been sent into a frenzy after Twitter users verified under the company’s new paid verification system started impersonating big game companies and faking announcements.

The new system allows anybody to be verified for a fee of $11.49 a month, and doesn’t require that users actually verify their identities at all. Naturally, the internet being the internet, some have taken this opportunity to impersonate big companies and mislead users.

Multiple verified Twitter accounts have popped up impersonating big games companies since the new feature went live, with fake Valve, Rockstar, and Nintendo of America accounts all causing havoc on unsuspecting users. The Valve impersonator, which used the handle “valvesotfware” wrote a tweet announcing a fake competitive platform called “Ricochet: Neon Prime”, which is not a product that is known to exist.

Since the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter, multiple ideas have been fielded to attempt to make Twitter financially profitable, with varying degrees of success. Picture: Olivier Douliery / AFP

The Rockstar Games impersonator, using the handle “RockstarGamse” took a similar approach, claiming that the “latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto Series” would be announced later this month. The Nintendo of America impersonator was much less convincing, using the handle “nlntendoofus” and posting a picture of Mario making an obscene gesture.

At the time of writing, all of these accounts have been suspended by Twitter for a breach of terms of service, but all of the posts were shared thousands of times before getting removed. The issue confirms fears shared by many high-profile Twitter users who claim that allowing anybody to purchase a verification mark without actually verifying their identities will cause an uptick in misinformation and impersonation.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has come under fire after his acquisition of the company last month, with many users sharing stories of their frustrations with both the acquisition and Musk himself. Recently, indie developers said Tesla wanted their games in cars for free, asking developers to create bespoke versions of their games for the electric vehicle platform without any payment.

The incident also comes after trouble for the Grand Theft Auto publisher, after Rockstar responded to a massive Grand Theft Auto VI leak in which almost 100 videos of the in-development game were leaked by a hacker.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.