The loved indie by Witch Beam, Unpacking, was recently spotted by fans on the iOS and Google Play app stores…or was it? The team behind the game recently went to twitter to call out a “suspiciously similar-looking” and “add-riddled” app that topped the charts for free to play games: Unpacking Master.
If you’ve happened to catch an ad for a suspiciously similar-looking game to Unpacking📦 on mobile recently, please know that this is not our game.
They sure seem to want to give the impression that it is, though! 🧵 pic.twitter.com/d3ULxxbmSA
— Unpacking 📦 Out NOW! (@UnpackingALife) January 25, 2022
The studio goes on to demonstrate the shocking similarities between the two games. The small indie studio spent years planning and crafting a game that was later copied within months of its release.
It’s demoralising for a small team like ours to see content we spent literally years planning, refining and handcrafting be hastily reproduced in an opportunistic ad-riddled app a mere 3 months after our launch. pic.twitter.com/vuPe58RP1e
— Unpacking 📦 Out NOW! (@UnpackingALife) January 25, 2022
Luckily, and likely thanks to vocal fans, the app has been removed from both app stores. It’s good to know that hoards of fans have the power to be heard and that their vocalization on this issue lead to action, but it is unfortunate that this occurred in the first place.
Source: Nintendolife