Summary
- A bunch of Unpacking copycats have appeared on the Nintendo eShop, which creative director Wren Brier reported over two weeks ago.
- However, they haven’t heard back from Nintendo, and these games are still available to purchase.
Throw your mind back to 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we all fell head over heels for Unpacking, an indie puzzle game from developer Witch Beam about moving into your new home. It was a runaway hit, so inevitably, copycats are trying to cash in on its success.
As first pointed out by Daniel Vuckovic, you can find an unofficial “Deluxe Edition” on the Nintendo eShop, but there’s also a slew of fake add-ons like a chill music pack and new chapters bundle. All of which use the trademarked name ‘Unpacking’ in what creative director Wren Brier calls an “egregious scam”.
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It’s an obvious breach of copyright, so Brier reported the games to Nintendo. But in the 16 days since then, nothing has been done.
“It’s been over two weeks and these are still on the eShop,” Brier posted on Bluesky. “Nintendo hasn’t responded to any of our reports of these egregious scams which are using our trademarked game name and purposely tricking Nintendo customers into buying cheap fakes.”
Ripoffs Are Nothing New For The Eshop
The Nintendo eShop has come under fire over the last few years for its poor moderation and strange habit of seemingly accepting anything that’s submitted (our own Features Editor Tessa Kaur wrote about as much).
Nothing sums that up better than The Last Hope, an awful, horribly broken game that launched last July, which was a blatant rip-off of The Last of Us. It was eventually delisted on August 1, 2023, and its trailers were taken down by Sony itself. But that’s a multinational, billion dollar conglomerate — Witch Beam is a much smaller indie company with a team of just six.
Hopefully, things change with the Switch 2 next year, as these Unpacking clones are far from an isolated incident.
Unpacking is a meditative game in which you’re tasked with setting up your new home after a move. There are several rooms to unpack spanning over twenty years of in-game time, which allow you to follow the protaginist’s life story.