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Developer gets Steam game assets stolen by Play Store copycat

13 points| caxco93 | 1 year ago |old.reddit.com

9 comments

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dexwiz|1 year ago

This seems really common to be honest. I wouldn't be surprised if there are shops specifically aimed at doing this. I have followed a few indie games where this has happened. Its seems really risky to do a PC only release now, because its only a matter of time before it gets stolen and put on mobile if you are even only moderately successful.

What shocks me is it seems like small creators can have their work destroyed by a single DMCA complaint, but blatant copies like this are ignored.

wumeow|1 year ago

Everyone in that thread is suggesting he lawyer up, but the copycat is almost certainly in China so that’s a waste of time. The best he can hope for is to get it taken off the Play Store.

spywaregorilla|1 year ago

A bit unrelated but does it jive with people's expectations that this game sold 50k copies (~$700k?) in early access and is considered only moderately successful by the poster?

dexwiz|1 year ago

$700k assumes only USA/USD sales, but its anywhere from 20% to 60% cheaper by region. Also the developer could be inflating the download count, different steam analytics sites put sales between 20-50k. This very easily pushes total sales down from $700k to as low as ~$100k.

Games like this are also a big risk. Years of work could easily hinge on if a few big streamers decide to play it on a whim, or if you are selected to be on the front page.

https://steamdb.info/app/2205850/

caxco93|1 year ago

I would assume he has to take into account that it took him about 2 years (based off his Reddit profile post) and there's Steam's 30% cut + publisher costs.

llmblockchain|1 year ago

No-- that is a damn good/very successful game from an indie perspective.