Getting clones taken down can be an exhausting process for developers. Small studios have less time, energy, and resources to dedicate to this process, and they\u2019re at the whims of the digital distribution platforms these games exist on.<\/p>\n
Wren Brier, Unpacking\u2019s creative director, says that since the game\u2019s release in 2021, developer Witch Beam has reported more than 80 clones. \u201cIt feels like whack-a-mole sometimes,\u201d Brier says. These are games that are not just similar in nature but \u201cblatant copyright infringements\u201d that lift the game\u2019s assets or even its name. \u201cThe majority have been extremely low-effort scams using Unpacking’s name or imagery to trick players into downloading something that isn’t even a game, just a series of ads,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
When it comes to many AI-made clones, Brier says there\u2019s a misconception about what that means. \u201cThey’re not AI-made games, they’re AI-generated marketing images attached to a completely unrelated, hastily slapped-together, bare-bones skeleton of a game,\u201d she says. \u201cThey are literally a scam: They are trying to trick players into buying a crappy product by using misleading imagery and by pretending to be a real game that the player might have heard of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clones don\u2019t always threaten a developer\u2019s profits\u2014Aggro Crab is confident about its bank account, thanks to Peak\u2019s massive success\u2014but the damage can be widespread in other ways. Brier says that AI-clones hurt developers the same way AI books hurt authors: \u201cFlooding a storefront with garbage that no one wants to play makes it impossible for players to organically discover indie games.\u201d Game certification, the process of getting onto a platform, used to be stricter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not a problem just for the games that get cloned,\u201d Brier says. \u201cIt’s a problem for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
For developers, there aren\u2019t many options to fight clones, regardless of how they\u2019re made. Intellectual property attorney Kirk Sigmon says clones are already difficult to tackle legally; copyright protection doesn\u2019t extend to a genre, aesthetic, or even gameplay mechanics. AI \u201cdefinitely makes slop generation faster, but the issue has been around for well over two decades,\u201d he says. \u201cAll that\u2019s really happened is that the bar has moved ever so slightly lower for new entrants, because you can make an AI model pump out stuff for you faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
The easiest case for copyright infringement typically happens when a cloner lifts work from the game directly\u2014as happened with Unpacking. \u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon for knockoff games to accidentally (or intentionally) copy assets from the game they are knocking off,\u201d Sigmon says.<\/p>\n
In fact, he says, AI-generated games might actually be better protected from copyright infringement lawsuits. \u201cAfter all, if knockoff developers are savvy, they\u2019ll use AI models to develop unique assets\/code rather than steal it from another game or just download it from some random Internet source,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019ll make it much harder to go after them in court, for better or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Platforms ultimately hold the power when it comes to ridding a storefront of clones, though smaller developers bear the brunt of the work in filing a report and sorting out who to talk to. Sometimes that process is quick and wraps in a few days; sometimes it can take weeks. Social pressure may be the best defense a developer has. Sigmon says that complaining to storefronts or enlisting fans are workable solutions. \u201cI don\u2019t know many gamers who are a fan of half-hearted slop games,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Aggro Crab and Landfall are taking this route. \u201cWe’re not really the type to be litigious,\u201d says Kamen, the cofounder. Instead, they\u2019re being outspoken in their distaste. In early August, the company posted<\/a> on X, in reference to one copycat, that it would rather users \u201cpirate our game than play this microtransaction-riddled [Roblox] slop ripoff.\u201d Landfall tweeted<\/a> that the company has \u201cbeen reporting a bunch of these AI slop things\u201d in response to a screenshot of the game Peaked Climbing. It was available on the PlayStation Store before being removed; Peak was released only on PC. WIRED has reached out to PlayStation, Roblox, and Steam and will update accordingly.<\/p>\n \u201cI consume media because it’s made by humans,\u201d Kamen says. \u201cI want to experience a piece of art, whatever it may be, another human has made and get their perspective and their outlook on the world. If AI is used to make the game, then you’re removing that from the equation. There’s no value in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting clones taken down can be an exhausting process for developers. Small studios have less time, energy, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[181,58303,29621,74,16154],"class_list":{"0":"post-83779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-online-gaming","10":"tag-pc-games","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-video-games"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}