Ripoffs are popping up all over the place at the moment as rogue developers try and cash in on some of gaming’s most popular franchises.
Just this morning, we discovered a terrible God of War knockoff titled War Gods Zeus of Child featuring a plagiarised Kratos fighting an endless slew of enemies in an area. Recently, Stumble Guys topped app charts which is rather unsurprisingly a copy of Fall Guys. Now, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting the knockoff treatment.
Check out knockoff Geralt in the Rise of the Kings mobile app trailer below.
You only need to look at the app icon of developer ONEMT’s Rise of the Kings game to know it’s a rip off of The Witcher. That’s Geralt all right. There’s no denying it. Describing the game, ONEMT wrote, “A new war is upon us, with evil threatening both the innocent and the meek. Cries of agony ring out across the land, as various powerful factions fight for power and domination. The fate of this land now rests in your hands.”
Admittedly, the synopsis could describe any kind of fantasy IP but Rise of the Kings isn't as cryptic in its advertising. An advert recreating The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s cover art recently gained a ton of traction on Reddit for its blatant copying. As pointed out by PC Gamer, the promotional artwork appears to copy Geralt’s armour from the Netflix series. Take a look below.
Rise of the Kings’ gameplay looks fairly similar to that of Diablo Immortal. In other words, you need to spend lots of money if you want to progress. Joking about the ripoff, Reddit user NIDORAX wrote, “That must be Harold of Rivera,” whilst toolsofpwnage said, “Can’t wait for the expansion. ROK: Saliva and Grape Juice.” Unbelievably, Rise of the Kings has had 10 million downloads to date, so seemingly the plagiarism marketing campaign is working.
Topics: The Witcher, The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red, Mobile Games