Apple App Store Copycats Are Getting Out Of Hand

Clones of popular games like Wordle and Unpacking have again exposed Apple’s failures against shameless rip-offs and scammy apps on the App Store.

A game called Unpacking Master briefly topped the App Store download charts the week of Jan. 24, and then it mysteriously vanished, but not before exposing an infamous Apple problem — clone apps. Apple takes great pride in the quality of applications available on its app repository, often touting the stringent testing and security vetting measures that it has put in place. The core App Store Review Guidelines page is a healthy 14,000-word overview of the dos and don’ts developers should know before submitting an app.

Apple hasn’t shied away from repeatedly blasting Google’s Play Store repository for its malware problem over the years. And rightfully so, to a healthy extent. But the reality is far from the pristine picture that Apple paints of the App Store, which is estimated to have brought in anywhere between $70-85 billion in 2021 alone. Unfortunately, however, the problem of clone apps continues to haunt Apple into 2022. And the latest victim happens to be Unpacking, an enjoyable puzzle game by Witch Beam Games.

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Per a Game Developer report, the clone app Unpacking Master briefly climbed to the top of the App Store charts before being pulled. Unlike the real game, the rip-off adopted a freemium model, dishing out in-game ads and asking for a one-time $4.99 payment to get rid of them forever. After being alerted by fans, the studio took to Twitter and noted that it took less than three months since the game’s release for a bad actor to clone the popular app. But the onus falls on Apple too, whose stringent app review process has often given a hard time to genuine developers too. “We’re a tiny indie team, and even with the success we have achieved, we still don’t have the resources to pursue companies trying to use our game’s distinct look and feel to make a quick buck. We have to rely on storefronts like the App Store to better curate their content,” Witch Beam Games wrote on Twitter.

A Rich History Of Shameless Clones

But Unpacking is not the first case of a blatant rip-off making waves. A few weeks ago, Wordle clones hit App Store, with one bad actor even boasting about his creation on Twitter. Apple eventually took down the clones, and Google followed in its footsteps as well. Once a top publisher on the App Store, Voodoo offered a game called Hole.io in 2018 that bore a little too close similarity with an indie game called Donut County. Hole.io sat at the top of the App Store’s Arcade game section. Apple Design Award winner Ridiculous Fishing also had a well-known copy called Ninja Fishing, even before it went from being a browser-based game to the App Store. IGF Awards winner Baba Is You was also copied, with the clone hitting the App Store ahead of the original game’s arrival on the mobile platform in 2018.

A studio named Ketchapp created a Monument Valley lookalike called Skyward did the same in 2014 with a game called 2048 that copied Threes. A near button-for-button TikTok clone called Zynn reached the App Store summit in the free apps category in 2020. A Chinese clone of Pokemon Go topped the App Store rankings in China back in 2016, while the original game was still in its beta phase and limited to Japan. At one point, over sixty Flappy Bird Clones were making their way to the App Store. Controversy over a Tetris clone made headlines all the way back in 2012. Krafton, maker of the battle royale hit PUBG Mobile, even sued the App Store for allowing clones under the Garena series.

Related: The Best App Store Apps And Games Of 2021, According To Apple

Internal documents uncovered as part of the Apple vs. Epic trial revealed that even Phil Schiller, Apple’s former senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, was aware of the app duplication problem. “How does an obvious rip-off of the super-popular Temple Run, with no screenshots, garbage marketing text, and almost all 1-star ratings, become the #1 free app on the store?” Schiller wrote in an email. “Is no one reviewing these apps? Is no one minding the store?” In 2019, virtual phone number apps were widely duplicated before Apple jumped into action and kicked them off the App Store.

All Parties Are Aware Of It

Developers are also well-aware of the menace, criticizing Apple for allowing sketchy apps with useless subscriptions that can cost as much as $10 and don’t even offer any valuable features whatsoever. Scammy apps have allowed bad actors to get away with millions of dollars each year. Per an analysis by The Washington Post last year, two percent of the top 1,000 apps on the App Store are scammy, and they’ve collectively defrauded users of a staggering $48 million. And all that happened after Apple decided to switch to editorially curated App Store game categories in 2015. Apple has taken some steps to solve the issues, but they are far from enough.

The ‘Report A Problem’ tool made its return to the App Store last year, but it hands over the responsibility of spotting fraud apps into the hands of users. Apple very much hates the idea of sideloading, but an app called Tutuapp that allowed users to sideload other unapproved applications on an iPhone was spotted operating in plain sight as recently as 2019. Wordle and Unpacking clones merely highlight, yet again, how Apple is doing a poor job at handling clones and scammy apps in 2022. Apple clearly needs something like a “Report A Clone” button to solve an issue it seems incapable of handling. Yes, there is potential for abuse here, just like dislike bombing on YouTube, but it will at least ring louder alarm bells for Apple and ensure that appropriate action is taken a tad sooner.

Next: Apple’s App Store Model Dealt Major Blow In Court

Sources: Game Developer, The Washington Post

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