Last week, it became known that Polish publisher Movie Games, known for the Drug Dealer Simulator duology, is investigating the game Schedule I for plagiarism. In an official Discord channel, the company stated that it initially had no intention of launching an investigation.
According to Movie Games, shortly before the release of Schedule I, they even sent the authors of Schedule I an email wishing them all the best. However, they soon had to hire lawyers.
“Due to multiple reports indicating that Schedule I closely resembles Drug Dealer Simulator, we were forced to request an analysis from an intellectual property specialist. They pointed out potential infringement by the developers of Schedule I concerning Drug Dealer Simulator,” stated Movie Games in the publication.
The company added that legal obligations require them to continue the investigation. The next step is to contact the authors of Schedule I to discuss the situation. Currently, Movie Games does not intend to prohibit the studio TVGS from further developing and selling the game.
The publisher also emphasized that they have not filed any lawsuits against TVGS at this time.
“This is a very serious situation for us. We are not a large corporation, but a relatively small indie publisher. There are other drug simulators with very positive ratings and good sales. However, according to our lawyers, they do not copy Drug Dealer Simulator,” stated Movie Games.
Following the news of the investigation regarding Schedule I, Steam users initiated a review-bombing of the Drug Dealer Simulator duology. As a result, the rating of both parts of the series based on reviews from the last 30 days became “extremely negative.” Meanwhile, over the weekend, Schedule I set a new online record, now tallying 459,075 people.