The creative director of indie hit Unpacking, Wren Brier, has called out Nintendo due to the prominence of copycat games on its Switch eShop.
Seventeen days ago, Brier shared a Bluesky post with a series of games titled Unpacking on the eShop, clearly inspired by Witch Beam’s award-winning game and sharing the same trademarked name.
Specifically, Unpacking Universe Dreams from CGI Lab (and its DLC packs) was added to the store on 26th October, which invites players to “explore a whimsical world where each box holds new adventures” as they “unpack and arrange items in vibrant locations, each with its own unique atmosphere”.
Earlier today, Brier posted on Bluesky once more, stating Nintendo has not responded to reports of these “egregious scams”.
“It’s been over two weeks and these are still on the eShop,” wrote Brier. “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.”
It’s been over two weeks and these are still on the eShop. 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.
— Wren Brier (@wrenegade.bsky.social) 16 December 2024 at 05:55
This isn’t the first time the Unpacking developers have faced this type of scam. Back in 2022, another Unpacking imitator was removed from the iOS and Google Play store after topping their most-downloaded charts.
“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,” the official Unpacking account explained at the time. “They sure seem to want to give the impression that it is, though!”
Eurogamer has contacted Nintendo for further comment.
This also isn’t the only game on the store from Moldovan studio CGI Lab. Two other games from the developer are currently listed: SCP-087 The Stairwell Horror and Abyss: Backrooms Pools Horror. However, as Nintendo Life previously reported, the developer has released games such as Video Game Store: Supermarket Simulator, Car Parking Legends: Drive & Park Adventure and Anime Puzzle Quest: The Magical Girls Adventure. These are all no longer on the store and the CGI Lab website does not list its games.
The Switch eShop has long been scrutinised, in particular for a prevalence in hentai games. In 2022 Nintendo revised its eShop rules on adult content as a result.
More recently, Tencent came under fire for its Light of Motiram game that’s heavily inspired by Sony’s Horizon games – or Horizon Zero Originality as Tencent‘s game has been jokingly dubbed.
Unpacking was Eurogamer’s game of the year back in 2021 for its moving storytelling.
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