Blatant Animal Crossing Copy appears on PlayStation Store

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Summary

  • An upcoming PlayStation game called Anime Life Sim recently received attention for looking like an obvious Animal Crossing clone.

  • The game seems to be ripping off the latest entry in Nintendo's series, New Horizons.

  • Besides having identical visuals, Anime Life Sim seems to have a gameplay loop that is the same as ACNH.

A new indie game that recently appeared on the PlayStation Store has some looking pretty obvious Animal Crossing ripoff. Specifically, the upcoming title appears to be a clone of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The Animal Crossing franchise has inspired many games over the years. And while some such titles have mainly taken big-screen lessons from Nintendo's series, others chose to lift some of its elements more directly.

16-PS4-Games-To-Play-That-Like-Animals-Cross-New-Horizons

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Games that aim to flat-out copy the franchise are rare, but they do exist. Case in point: Anime Life Siman upcoming indie title that was recently listed on the PlayStation Store and immediately received a lot of attention for looking like a pretty obvious one Animal Crossing: New Horizons clone. The project is listed as being developed and published by IndieGames3000, a studio that currently has dozens of titles spanning a variety of genres to its name.

Anime Life Sims PS Store page basically describes Animal Crossing

The similarities between Anime Life Sim and ACNH aren't purely visual, with the former's PS Store description also featuring Nintendo's 2020 Switch exclusive, promising a “charming social simulation” that lets players build and decorate a home, befriend animal neighbors and engage in daily activities such as fishing, catching insects, gardening, making objects and discovering fossils. Every single one of these things is also a mechanic in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The game rules are not patentable, but copying images can cause problems

As longtime patent analyst Florian Mueller recently told Game Rant, the rules of the game are inherently unpatentable everywhere in the world. In this sense, there is nothing legal to prevent anyone from copying any title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is included. Things get a little trickier when it comes to images, as things like art style, character design, and certain graphic elements can all be protected under copyright law in many jurisdictions. Therefore, if Nintendo were to try to crack down on Anime Life Sim to prevent its release, it would likely focus on how visually similar the upcoming title is Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Nintendo has long earned a reputation for being quite litigious when it comes to gaming companies. However, it is currently unclear whether the company is seriously considering following suit Anime Life Simassuming the project is even on their radar. Meanwhile, the familiar life sim is currently listed as targeting a February 2026 release. Its PS Store page does not clarify whether the game is planned to be available on PS4 in addition to PS5.

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