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Word that Drug Dealer Simulator publisher Movie Games SA is investigating the hit drug dealer simulator Schedule I for possible copyright infringement is not going over well with gamers, who are reacting to the news in the most predictable way possible: A big ol’ review bombing campaign.
Movie Games recently confirmed that it is looking into possible infringement, but noted that it hasn’t actually taken any legal action yet and said it’s not looking to force a halt to Schedule I sales. “Our goal at this point is discussing the situation with [Schedule I developer TVGS] and we have an open approach,” the publisher said in a statement.
Be that as it may, Drug Dealer Simulator and its sequel, Drug Dealer Simulator 2, are feeling the wrath of gamers leaping to the preemptive defense of their favorite new rags-to-riches drug dealing sim. Recent reviews of DDS are “overwhelmingly negative,” while those of DDS2 are “mostly negative,” and there’s no mistaking why:
- Imagine getting your ass handed to you by one person with passion and vision, and thinking the right move is to cry to your legal team instead.
- I enjoyed this at the time but after seeing how these jealous devs are taking legal action against an arguably superior game for the sole reason that they’re jealous
- Had high hopes for this game, was a shame that it turned out so bad and the devs decide to go after schedule 1 instead of making a good game.
- Lmao, removing this scum bag devs game out of my library, get ♥♥♥♥♥♥, seethe, cope, loathe, +ratio. maybe improve your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ drug game instead of going after an indie dev for making a far better product than a full fledged dev company LOL.
- I liked the game up until they became greedy and jealous that a solo game developer, who created a game 10 times greater than theirs is so successful.
- Screw this company, crying over a solo game developer, creating a better game than them.
- The devs behind this trash are suing the solo developer behind Schedule I for “copyright infringement”. Clearly just jealous that he made a better game
- Boooooo. go cry because schedule 1 is a better game. jealous ♥♥♥♥♥
Even positive reviews are getting in on the action: One says Drug Dealer Simulator 2 is a better game than Schedule 1, but is critical of “the lawsuit” and the negative reviews based on it, even though there is no lawsuit at this point.
It’s worth noting that the original Drug Dealer Simulator was quite well received prior to the Schedule I mess, and even with the influx of negative reviews it’s still rated “very positive” overall, across more than 19,000 user reviews—very good numbers by any measure. The sequel didn’t make quite as good an impression, boasting a “mixed” rating with roughly 5,500 reviews. So they’re not shovelware games that nobody really cared about before Schedule 1 dragged them into the light: People genuinely liked them, just not on the scale of Schedule 1’s breakout success
Review bombing on Steam has been with us for years now, but even though there’s nothing new to see here the Drug Dealer Simulator backlash does illustrate the inherent weakness of the system: As PC Gamer’s Morgan Park wrote in 2024, Steam review bombing is “gaming’s most powerful method of protest,” and it does sometimes get results: Witness the whole Helldivers 2 debacle from 2024 for proof of that.
But it can also be a real headache for game makers who get caught up on a wave of misdirected rage. Which isn’t a judgment of Movie Games’ motivations—for all I know, maybe it really is just mad that Schedule I is such a hit—but the fact is that it’s getting clobbered even though it hasn’t taken any action yet. Maybe there’s a feeling that this kind of preemptive backlash will dissuade it from pursuing the matter further, and if that’s eventually the outcome then job well done, I guess. Hopefully everyone involved remembers to change their review scores if Movie Games does decide to let the whole thing drop.
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Kurt Indovina
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