Hey guys,
Hope everyone is doing well. I already posted this over at GameDev & PS5 and Twitter if you wish to see it there in fewer words but wanted to bring it to more attention hopefully to the video games community, if it's against the rules though feel free to delete the post. I wish to make people more aware of the situation because at this point, that is all I can do while I am waiting for Nintendo to put the game down.
Hopefully with my post here, it will get more people aware about a company that is NOT only stealing games from developers like myself, but also stealing money from buyers. They stole my game, uploaded it on consoles and sold it as theirs. They are doing this with multiple companies and I wish more people are aware of this. Also, they have a couple of post here too if you want to check it out. I will be keeping things short this time.
Recently I have released The Backrooms 1998 which I have posted about it here before as well on Playstation, Xbox, Steam and Nintendo switch after 3 years in development. Someone commented on one of my videos and thanks to him I found out that a company called "COOL DEVS S.R.L" stole my whole game, ripped it, pasted some bad AI crap on it as a cover, literally made a BAD version of it and just published it to trick players.
They stole the whole game as it is alongside the music, sounds, voice lines and everything else. They only changed the monster and the picture on the frame.
Video Link to the fake game: https://youtu.be/QdQ6qtcSIFc?t=383 (Named: Backrooms Horror Escape)
Video Link to my original game: https://youtu.be/7tWYhFfXNBM?t=561 (Named: The Backrooms 1998)
This is the fake game still up on Nintendo: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/backrooms-horror-escape-switch/?srsltid=AfmBOooMFMg_7Ps75RY-s5yUonF8xdcJcvLIMUVWJMD6_PeemHSquLZt
Also, this is a link to their Nintendo Page so you can see what kind of "games" they do: https://www.nintendo.com/us/search/#cat=gme&f=softwarePublisher&softwarePublisher=COOL%20DEVS
I feel that I should link to this very helpful post by SwitchStars with a list of publishers. SwitchStars seems to have been investigating these companies for a very long time.
Here are these images comparation. Also, they are doing this with other games. My main goal is to make people AWARE of these scams from this company, and maybe also others as well.
Small Update: We have already submitted a DMCA. Luckily the game is down on PS and XBOX but still up on Nintendo. Other then that, it's a waiting game and in the meantime, I want people to be aware.
For Players: Be careful and double check the games before you purchase if you got consoles. Check their developer accounts as well and always be caution. If you suspect the game is one of those fake / shady games, then see if you can request a refund and report it instantly.
For developers: Thanks to the community from what I learned it's best to use Il2cpp in your code. Apparently this will make it harder for these scammers to de-compile your code. The way they stole my game is by using a program and de-compiled it so they got all my assets, music, sounds, voice overs etc.
by Steelkrill
32 Comments
You need a lawyer, not reddit
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Thanks for the heads up.
It’s crazy thay this is even possible, how did all these e shops let these guys just upload a stolen game, is there no damn quality control at all anymore ? Actually pathetic thay they didn’t flag this as stolen work. I’m sorry op this would of been super infuriating.
I saw this story on Newswave this morning they are wrong for that hope you take legal action
why does the fake game have a naked woman mannequin that is all too detailed 😭😭
Wow. That is a really calm post from someone who just had their work stolen. If it had been me that would have just been incoherent rage talk.
You’re a better man than me. I would be absolutely losing my shit.
Nintendo needs to get the eShop under control. This is terrible.
That’s horrifying, sorry you went through that! 🙁
Fuck those people, seriously
Looking at their page they stealing a bunch of games not only yours, wtf is nintendo even doing man
With AI technology rapidly evolving this kind of plagiarism/theft will significantly more prevalent and complicated in a very near future
I saw your game on IGP on YouTube. Looks amazing.
I hope you can get this fixed.
It’s almost funny how dogshit the quality control for the eshop is.
Wow, I didn’t know games could be ripped off so easily.
Nintendo truly has dogshit quality control it’s not even funny anymore
Just to confirm this information for people wanting to wishlist or purchase the game: your game is The Backrooms 1998 and the publisher is Feardemic?
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It would help if eshop had a resting system to start with. You can usually tell the games just by the name.
Crazy-Drift-Parking-Taxi-Race-simlator, anyone?.
One of my first eshop purchases I got burnt by one of these assholes. Game was marked down from like 15 bux to like 2 bux. Can’t remember the game. Some medieval rpg looking game. Images looked good but no video. Didn’t check a review online. My bad….
Download and fire it up.
Game loads and looked OK. Only red flag at the time was, I had never played but I could pick the last level from the beginning, Hmmmmph ok
First level broken beyond words. Start on some roman era colloseum obstacles course looking thing. But it’s floating in mid air from memory. And no matter what way you tried to get down. You either got stuck, No clipped through the floor you tried to land on or just respawned
Quit out and tried a few levels all broken beyond words. Had there been a star rating service it may have saved me 2 bux. I never tried to contact nintendo about it but I know for a fact it’s still on there cos it pops up in the sales near the top. Not so much now but still way further up the list than it should be.
My bf bought this for me some time ago for Switch 😮. So sorry they did this to you!
Send a DMCA notice through Nintendo and show them whatever your showing here.
Anything we can do to help? Any way to report or write to someone about it on your behalf?
Hoo man I was following your project since the beginning. That is so sad. Did they stole the source code. Or just copied it. Can you start any legal action.?
Get a lawyer and quit bitching on Reddit
They look like different games, both using a common hyped theme. Most backrooms games are so generic that I couldn’t tell you if ANY of them were different.
Propably same scammers who are behind Finnish Cottage Simulator for PS5.
There are a lot of copy-cat games out there, don’t be surprised.
Thank you for raising awareness of the situation, hopefully no one playing Nintendo will purchase this game from here on forth ,but please consider getting a lawyer 🙏🏻I hope for your sake this can be resolved and hope you will be compensated 🥺
This is what happens when storefronts have zero quality control. Sucks that that happened to you, but it’s as much on Sony and Nintendo and whoever else for allowing it to happen.
Can’t you contact these companies and tell them what’s going on?
They even stole the game called “bad parenting”
This is actually just sad, nintendo has to fix the eshop, this is unacceptable, especially with the switch 2 being closer than ever.
Get a lawyer asap. Document everything.
hope the internet does what it does best and give that company what it deserves