Blatant Animal Crossing Copy Appears on PlayStation Store

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 13, 2025 2 Views 6 Min Read
Blatant Animal Crossing Copy Appears on PlayStation Store

Summary

  • An upcoming PlayStation game called Anime Life Sim recently garnered attention for looking like a blatant Animal Crossing clone.
  • The game seems to rip off the latest entry in Nintendo’s series, New Horizons.
  • Aside from having identical visuals, Anime Life Sim seems to feature a gameplay loop that’s the same as that of ACNH.

A new indie game that recently surfaced on the PlayStation Store has turned some heads for looking like a pretty blatant Animal Crossing ripoff. Specifically, the upcoming title seems to be a clone of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The Animal Crossing franchise has inspired many games over the years. And while some such titles have mainly taken big-picture lessons from Nintendo’s series, others opted to lift some of its elements more directly.

16-PS4-Games-To-Play-That-Are-Similar-To-Animal-Crossing-New-Horizons

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Games that aim to flat-out copy the franchise are rarer, but they do exist. Case in point: Anime Life Sim, an upcoming indie title that was recently listed on the PlayStation Store and immediately garnered significant attention for looking like a fairly blatant Animal Crossing: New Horizons clone. The project is listed as being developed and published by IndieGames3000, a studio that currently has dozens of titles spanning a variety of genres to its name.

Anime Life Sim’s PS Store Page Basically Describes Animal Crossing

The similarities between Anime Life Sim and ACNH aren’t purely visual, with the former’s description on the PS Store also being evocative of Nintendo’s 2020 Switch exclusive, promising a “charming social simulation” that allows players to build and decorate a home, befriend animal neighbors, and partake in daily activities like fishing, catching bugs, gardening, crafting items, and discovering fossils. Every single one of these things is also a mechanic in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Game Rules Aren’t Patentable, But Copying Visuals Can Spell Trouble

As long-time patent analyst Florian Mueller recently told Game Rant, game rules are inherently unpatentable everywhere in the world. In this sense, there’s nothing legally stopping anyone from copying any title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons included. Things get a bit more tricky when it comes to visuals, as things like art style, character design, and some graphical elements can all be protected under copyright law in many jurisdictions. Therefore, if Nintendo were to attempt cracking down on Anime Life Sim in order to prevent it from releasing, it would plausibly focus on how visually similar the upcoming title is to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Nintendo has long earned a reputation for being fairly litigious as far as game companies go. However, it’s presently unclear whether the company is seriously considering going after Anime Life Sim, assuming that the project is even on its radar. In the meantime, the familiar-looking life sim is currently listed as targeting a February 2026 release. Its PS Store page doesn’t clarify whether the game is planned to be available on the PS4 in addition to the PS5.

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