Five years after its launch, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has already been forgotten and fans of the franchise are eagerly awaiting the next installment. But while the Nintendo Switch 2 is not even official yet, it goes without saying that the return of the famous life simulation is not about to happen. The new offline version of Pocket Camp serves as a distraction, but another title has already caught the attention of players. A production presented under the name Anime Life Sim has appeared on the PlayStation Store and is already raising many questions.
With a launch set for February 2026, this game promises to offer an experience in every way similar to Animal Crossing: a real plagiarism assumed. Palworld is already considered too close to Pokémon, but suffice it to say that Anime Life Sim crosses the line. From the gameplay description to the first images, this project has all the makings of a well-crafted scam that, let's be honest, will probably never see the light of day. Aside from the horde of Big N lawyers who are certainly preparing to put an end to the project, everything suggests that Anime Life Sim doesn't even exist.
A fake game generated by AI?
The fiasco The Day Before that occurred in December 2023 marked a turning point for the video game industry. After lying for years with fake trailers, the developers ended up publishing a completely false game, before running away with the money under the pretext of "repaying debts" to their partners. This unexpected scam certainly proved to malicious individuals that a new type of scam had just appeared in the world of video games.
By adding the rise of generative AI to this already unhealthy equation, fake developers will be able to have a field day. It is therefore no surprise that the case of Anime Life Sim is already being watched very closely. After a first look at the game’s screenshots – riddled with glaring errors and inconsistent art direction – a simple search on the history of the studio IndieGames3000 (sometimes listed as IndieGames300 or Maksym Vysochanskyy) allows one to understand the nature of the project.
A copy of TCG Card Shop Simulator, titled TCG Card Shop Manager and made up of AI-generated images and recycled assets, has already been removed from the Epic Games Store but is now still available on the PlayStation Store. Until proven otherwise, it would seem that Anime Life Sim follows the same codes and is not a real game. How long before the “title” disappears, like the plagiarism of Monster Hunter released by the same developer a short while ago? In the future, you will have to be extra careful before buying games that come out of nowhere because appearances are more deceptive than ever.
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