An AI-made Haunted Paws knockoff appears in Switch 2 eShop searches

[Isabella80]

An indie game shown at Nintendo's Indie World has an unwelcome lookalike on the eShop. Kotaku reports that searching for Haunted Paws on the Switch 2 eShop brought up Ghostly Whiskers, a near identical game from publisher Nostra Games

Haunted Paws is a co-op game about two dogs searching a haunted house for their owner, due in May 2027. Ghostly Whiskers, released in September at full price, is about two cats in a similar setting

In January, Haunted Paws developer Lazy Flock called Ghostly Whiskers an unauthorised copy that steals its concept, visuals and story using AI generated assets. GamesRadar has previously reported that Nostra has released other apparent copycats of games such as Fallout Shelter, Two Point Hospital and Crossy Road

While Kotaku was writing the article, the real Haunted Paws demo appeared on the eShop. The claims about copying come from the developer, and Nostra Games' side has not been reported

This is exactly the kind of cloning problem Valve admitted to on Steam this week, and it shows it is not limited to one store. Small developers have little protection when their ideas are copied before their game even launches. Nintendo's store curation will face questions

Should console stores do more to block copycat games? And how can small developers protect their ideas?

When You Search For This New Switch 2 Indie Game, An 'Unauthorized' Knockoff With 'AI-Generated Assets' Shows Up, Too - Kotakukotaku.com

[Janette_63]

Knockoffs appearing in search results for the real game are a nightmare for the developer. Players could easily buy the wrong one

Nintendo needs to fix that quickly. First impressions matter for small games

[JediPanther]

Having the real demo arrive the same day is a nice bit of timing. Players can now see the difference. Hopefully that limits the damage