Schedule 1was not on most people’s radar heading into 2025, but it quickly became one of the biggest games of the year simply through word-of-mouth. Developed almost entirely by a single person, this drug dealer simulator was released in early access on Steam in March 2025 and, despite having no marketing campaigns, it attracted hundreds of thousands of gamers on the platform. Upon its initial release,Schedule 1managed to outperform major AAA titles likeGrand Theft Auto 5andMonster Hunter Wildsin terms of player count, and it received an astounding 98% positive user score on Valve’s PC storefront.
It’s hard to say whySchedule 1attracted as much attention as it did, but part of its success could be attributed to its overall novelty.Schedule 1is an open-world crime gamein which players play as a rookie drug dealer, who has to climb their way to the top by selling drugs in the city of Hyland Point. Despite its mature premise, the game is pretty light-hearted in tone. Its art style is similar toRick and Morty, and the violence it portrays is largely unrealistic. There aren’t a lot of games likeSchedule 1on the market, but since its early access launch, many copycats have already started to appear on other platforms.
Knock-Off Versions of Schedule 1 are Popping Up All Over the Place
Although the developer ofSchedule 1does have plans to bring the game to consoles in the future, it is currently only available on PC. In spite of this, players have seengames with theSchedule 1namepop up on certain online storefronts. For instance, PS5 users recently noticed that there was a trending game on the PlayStation Store titledSchedule 1: Dope Empire. Despite having a somewhat different art style, this game was a blatant rip-off of the originalSchedule 1, from its supposed gameplay description to its identically-named setting.
Popular Indie Games Get Knock-Off Ports More Often than AAA Games Do
Knock-offs and copycats have always been a part of the video game industry, but these days, it isn’t so easy to find ones that are based off popular AAA titles. There aren’tmanyMonster Hunter Wildsrip-offsout there, after all, nor are there a wealth ofBaldur’s Gate 3clones floating around on the internet. The same sentiment, however, can not be applied to indie games. Over the last few years, several knock-offs and imitators have attempted to capitalize on the unexpected success of many of the biggest games from independent developers.
LikeSchedule 1, Pocketpair’s indie survival game,Palworld, was an instant hit when it came out on Xbox and PC last year. However, just days after the game was released, severalknock-off ports ofPalworldappeared on mobile game storefronts like the Google Play Store. A similar thing happened to the asymmetrical horror gameR.E.P.O.; even though it’s only playable on PC, fake versions of the game started to show up on the PlayStation Store without the developer’s knowledge or consent. EvenGray Zone Warfare, the popular extraction shooter from Madfinger Games, had a similarly-named copycat on the PlayStation website.
Platform Holders Need to Put Stricter Regulations in Place to Stop This from Happening
One of the main reasons that shovelware developers are targeting indie games like these over major AAA releases is probably because they’re less likely to be sued. After all, if someone were to sell a fake version ofThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomon the PlayStation Store,Nintendo would probably send out a cease-and-desist letter immediately. Due to the advent of generative AI, it has also become a lot easier for shovelware developers to make copycat versions of games with little-to-no effort. Unless platform holders start placing stricter rules to prevent such games from being allowed on their storefronts, then this issue will probably continue for the foreseeable future.
