Steam scammers allegedly steal and sell Indie’s free Unreal ‘Superman’ demo [Updated]

Update (noon ET): The Steam listing for Heroes City Superman Edition was deleted shortly after this piece was posted. You can still watch it through Link to this Internet Archive. Butler-Boschma review attacking the game as a scam Archive here.

Valve has yet to respond to Ars’ request for comment.

Original story:

Back in April, independent developer Tyson Butler-Boschma Released Unreal Engine 5-powered Superman Flying Experience for free on itch.io. Now, he says, scammers have been selling a stolen copy of that demo on Steam for weeks without permission or any apparent action from Valve.

Superman City Heroes Edition It launched on Steam on November 1, with developer Hero Game Studios describing the game as “a unique experience where you get to choose your hero and adventure on a large, realistically crafted map.” Since then it has been Sold for up to $35 Despite appearing as a carbon copy of Butler-Boschma’s long-running free demo.

After flagging the Steam version as a “scam” in a file November 1 tweetButler Bushma Posted on November 9 Steam Review Alleging that the developer of Steam Hero Game Studios “just downloaded and stole and submitted this work as their own.”

Go on the attack

In response to the review, Hero Game Studios claims Butler-Boschma is one of the “ex-developers” who left the project and is now trying to claim rights to the game for profit (although itch.io has always been offered for free). “This is a lie, I have no idea who they are,” Butler Bushma wrote. “They claim they made this game…a lie as well.”

Butler Bushma seems to have the bulk of the evidence on his side on the matter. On the itch.io demo page published in April, Butler-Boschma describes a free demo “just for fun” that is “just a test of what a futuristic Superhero like Superman might look like in a large-scale modern city running on UE5”. This page is also candid about the fact that the demo is built on top Epic Matrix Awakens city ​​samplewith the main character simply replaced with a “flying super variant of my own design.”

“I’ve been making this demo myself for months as a proof of concept, using mostly free assets,” Butler-Boschma wrote in his Steam review. “I’ve always been open and honest about it…”

On the other hand, Heroes City’s Steam page only lists a Twitter account Created in late September Only a few screenshots of the game have been posted. The studio does not appear to have any other games or web presence to support its title claim or any long-term development work. And that’s not even about the obvious copyright issues of selling a game with “Superman Edition” in the title without any license from DC Comics or Warner Bros.

Despite all this, Butler-Boschma also says Hero Game Studios has gone after it His YouTube account, using the copyright infringement system to remove a demo video he posted in April. This copyright strike Apparently citing the game’s Steam page As evidence that Hero Game Studios “want to remove this game of ours from this video”.

“They are directly attacking me and harassing me at this point,” Butler Bushma chirp. “I don’t feel safe submitting my personal information for a counterclaim…”

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it may be due to the similarities with the summer incident that saw NiFTy Arcade. Copy and sell unlicensed versions of HTML5 games freely available on GameStop’s NFT Market. Both cases highlight how easy it is for scammers to use lax market standards of moderation to try to profit from free games created by others and how free game makers should be vigilant in case of signs of such theft.

Valve has yet to respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.