No, Indie Hit 'Unpacking' Hasn't Unboxed New DLC, It's Just Another Naff eShop Clone

admin

Chad

Staff member

85%

Nov 28, 2024

The Switch eShop is full of a lot of rubbish these days, that's no surprise to us. The rise of 'scam games' has been a quick one, with results ranging from keyword bingo titles like Cop Car Police Simulator Chase - Car games simulator & driving to more blatant rip-offs. Today, one that straddles both camps has been brought to our attention.

As flagged on BlueSky by Daniel Vuckovic, the eShop is now home to a title called 'Unpacking: Deluxe Edition'. Now, you may reasonably assume this is some kind of expansion to 2021's indie darling, Unpacking, but you would be wrong. Instead, this 'Deluxe Edition' just adopts Witch Beam's instantly recognisable name. And its basic format. Ugh.

'Unpacking: Deluxe Edition' is currently listed on the Australian and Japanese Switch eShops for $17.99 / 1,280 yen, though a not-so-deluxe version called 'Unpacking Universe Dreams' is available on the European and North American storefronts, boasting the same AI-generated key art.

This one comes from publisher CGI LAB, the team that has released at least 13 titles on the eShop this year alone, including such *ahem* hits as Video Game Store: Supermarket Simulator, Car Parking Legends: Drive & Park Adventure and Anime Puzzle Quest: The Magical Girls Adventure.

As we said, this is no rare occurrence these days, but it's still disappointing when such a blatant clone crops up. According to its eShop page, Universe Dreams lets you "Unpack and arrange items in vibrant locations, each with its own unique atmosphere," and "Discover hidden treasures and delightful surprises as you create your perfect space". Ringing any bells?

Daniel Vuckovic (@vook64.bsky.social)

Nintendo's seemingly happy to let the eShop rot, the AI eWaste wasn't enough now we just have straight up copyright infringement. With the next console backward compatible, this crap can't be allowed to continue. This new release on the right, come on.

bsky.app

By the look of things, Universe Dreams doesn't carry over Unpacking's delightful puzzling or heartfelt story (it certainly doesn't appropriate the pixel art visuals), but there's more than enough to suggest it's misleading, we'd say.

Whether this one sticks around to actually catch anyone out remains to be seen, though the eShop has been so full of these practices in recent years that we'd expect to see another rear its head in no time, either way.

As noted in the above post, 'Switch 2' is officially set to be backwards compatible, so we can't help but wonder if Nintendo will implement any rules to reduce this type of stuff on its next hardware. Gosh, we hope so.

What do you make of this blatant eShop rip off? Let us know in the comments.