Piracy and Plagiarism Could Dismantle the Videogame Industry as We Know It

There is no issue that threatens game development more than videogame piracy and plagiarism, and it needs to stop.

Copycat games crush domestic (and often independent) game makers who sacrifice years, and often their own money, to develop high-quality titles such as Shovel Knight, Pillars of Eternity, Stardew Valley and more.

Examples of copycat games vs. their legitimate titles include:

Rules of Survival vs. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
FortCraft vs. Fortnite
Monster Hunter Mobile Clone vs. Monster Hunter World
Zelda Battle Royale Clone vs. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Illegitimate developers steal source code, reskin games (not very well) and release their own, low-quality versions for profit online and on mobile devices. This unprecedented activity is crippling the videogame industry, costing legitimate developers and publishers more than $74 billion a year (and climbing), and oversaturate the marketplace with second-rate games.

Gamers’ dollars matter, and we ultimately determine what lives and dies in the videogame marketplace. Let us know if you’ve seen pirated games.

Nathan Stevens

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I have always enjoyed playing video games and am a programming team lead for a video game company. I co-founded Gaming Cypher because I enjoy the gaming community and would like to provide the best news service around. Feel free to ask me any questions and I will make sure to get back to you quickly.