Re: Is this a copyright troll or something?

It's probably an automated tool, likely using "AI" to assist it.

The ESA represents those corporations. They could have simply asked their members "hey, we got this new automated DMCA takedown tool that uses AI to find infringing content online. Want us to use it to protect your copyright?" and since AI is the new buzzword, the CEOs and shareholders went "yeah, that sounds awesome, go ahead".

This seems awfully suspicious. Only games with specific keywords have been struck down. For example, most of the Sonic games, but not Shadow the Hedgehog or Mean Bean Machine. Another example is that a ton of Mario, Pokemon, and other series Nintendo owns are gone but Wario, Kirby, Star Fox and other game series they own or share rights with (like how they own a third of The Pokemon Company) are still up. It seems strange how selective this whole thing is. It might just be a copyright troll but I don't know if its possible to tell or not at this stage. Additionally, why would the ESA specifically go after the Mega Man games? Capcom I could get, but the ESA? Last time I checked, the people who made the ESRB aren't exactly employed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Capcom, etc. This all just seems odd.