Recently, there have been devastating reviews for the Drug Dealer Simulator on Steam. The background involves rumors that they are planning to sue the current hit Schedule I. Now the developers are clarifying the situation.
What game is it about? The Drug Dealer Simulator has been available on Steam since April 2020. The game lives up to its name, engaging the player in the production and distribution of illegal substances.
The current Steam hit Schedule I appears to be almost identical. Here, players work their way up from petty criminals to powerful drug lords, along with their own laboratories and distribution networks. This similarity was also noted by the publisher of the initially released Drug Dealer Simulator, who initiated an investigation.
You can watch the trailer for Schedule I here:
Mandatory review becomes a downfall
What led to the negative reviews? On Steam, the Drug Dealer Simulator currently has just 90% negative reviews, mostly from fans of the competition who are against legal actions against Schedule I. The publisher Movie Games SA allegedly sued the developers of TVGS for copyright violations.
However, as the publisher of the Drug Dealer Simulator now explains, there was never any lawsuit. In a post on X.com, the responsible parties state that they had “no intention of preventing TVGS [developers of Schedule I] from selling or developing their game.”
They further explain that a preliminary analysis indicated signs of copyright infringement. As a publicly traded company, they are therefore obligated to thoroughly investigate this suspicion, or else the company faces penalties for negligence.
This more detailed examination would have been published by the ESPI, a stock exchange information system. This is also mandatory to ensure full transparency to investors. Media made a claim from this more detailed legal examination that does not even exist.
Furthermore, it is stated that the developers of the Drug Dealer Simulator had nothing to do with this investigation at all.
Is the investigation still ongoing? Yes, the investigation by the publisher is still ongoing. Although the publisher emphasizes that there is no bad blood between the developers of Schedule I and them. They even congratulated on the finalization of the game before its release. However, the investigation remains.
The publisher further states in their statement that if the investigation finds copyright violations, they would be obligated to act. This information would also be made known again through the aforementioned stock exchange information system ESPI.
The publishers are likely attempting to ensure, with this clarification, that their own game is not further punished with revenge reviews. Before the release of Schedule I, the developer sought advice from the community. He feared that the title of his game would not represent the content well. Ironically, users explicitly advised him against titles like “Drug Dealer Simulator” – those would directly cause yawning. Developer asks on reddit whether a stupid name would ruin his game, now has a huge hit on Steam
