The Apple Store has long been full of apps that make money through cloning, copyright infringement and other scammy techniques. Sometimes, thanks to Apple’s never-ending vigilance, these scams can even make it to the top of the iTunes charts.
Take Minecraft: Pocket Edition 2, for example. Although this $10.99 app advertises itself as a sequel to Mojang’s ubiquitous brick-building game, it’s actually blatant fraud. The game itself has nothing to do with Minecraft, as Eurogamer discovered early this morning — it’s actually a swiping game where you have to fight zombies using Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Until it crashes your phone.
None of that stopped Minecraft: Pocket Edition 2 from skyrocketing to #4 on iTunes’ paid app chart, as redditors on r/games discovered late last night. Although the game is no longer on top of the charts, it remains on iTunes, where you can find the same scammer selling other games too.
This scammer goes by Scott Cawthorn — a misspelled version of Five Nights at Freddy’s creator Scott Cawthon — and he’s also released his own versions of FNAF and Mortal Kombat. Mysteriously, all of the scammer’s apps are filled with nothing but five-star reviews.
Minecraft developer Mojang told Eurogamer that they’re looking to remove Minecraft: Pocket Edition 2 from the Apple Store. What’s incredible is that Apple approved it in the first place. Guess scams are OK as long as they don’t have guns.
Comments
11 responses to “Fake Minecraft Sequel Tops iTunes Charts”
Disappointing, but not at all surprising. Apple is absolutely disgraceful when it comes to preventing ripoffs being sold in their store. How can no questions be asked when a supposed sequel to a popular game be released by a totally different person/company?
Why the heck would anyone think that the new version of minecraft would appear with no fanfare, no marketing, no announcement of any kind?
And since Apple approves every single app, how did this get through?
I’m thinking it’s a lot of young kids checking the store and then their parents are buying it for them, with either of them having any idea about what games are what. The same kinds of people who buy E.T. The game thinking it’s going to be awesome
The curation of the Apple store is a fascinating look at the priorities a business has regarding the content in their store. Too early for me to accurately nail examples, but I find it amusing.
Yes, it is still too early. I’m on holidays.
Typical Apple. They’d fight tooth and nail for their own intellectual property but turn a blind eye to others’ whenever money’s involved. They should hand over their 33% takings to Mojang, and revisit their ‘quality’ control whilst they’re at it.
Ha. Nice one Apple.
I really hope apple refunds everyone who got scammed by their incompetence to properly curate their store.
I hope Microsoft sue Apple over this.
Creatively bankrupt losers who engineer these cash grabs are bottom dwelling swill. They are in the same league as musicians who blatantly emulate a popular sound and add nothing.
I wonder why the creator even bothered coding a scorpion/zombie fighting game, buggy though it may be, when obviously anyone is going to realise that it’s not Minecraft 2. A consolation prize maybe?
Why would Apple care? They’re still getting their cut. They’ll just release some weak excuse statement and eventually ban the game.
Apple r hopeless!