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Red Hook President Warns Players About Darkest Dungeon Scam
Update: The fraudulent version of Darkest Dungeon has been removed from Microsoft's online store. Searching for "Balaji Chowdary," the person who uploaded that version reveals that all of "his" listings have been removed.
Original Story:
The head of Red Hook Studios, the developer behind Darkest Dungeon, is warning people not to purchase the version of the game that's popped up on the Windows Game Store. At best, it's an attempt to fool unwitting users into spending $4 on something worthless.
Tyler Sigman spoke out about the knockoff in a series of tweets.
If anyone has a contact at Windows Game Store, please share. Somebody is scamming DD by selling it (illegally) on there.
— Red Hook Tyler (@tylersigman) February 22, 2015
On a related note, if you didn't buy Darkest Dungeon on Steam or Humble Store right now, you got scammed.
— Red Hook Tyler (@tylersigman) February 22, 2015
Please ensure you purchase the game from Steam or Humble. Scams have been reported and we are checking into them.
— Darkest Dungeon (@DarkestDungeon) February 22, 2015
If you check out this link to the Windows Game Store version of the supposed game, you'll notice a few things. First, this version of Darkest Dungeon is priced at $3.99 – not bad, considering the early access game is sold for $19.99. That price difference is largely because if you purchase Darkest Dungeon on Steam or the Humble Store, you're getting the actual game.
The knockoff is credited to someone named Balaji Chowdary. Looking at his previous work, it's clear that this isn't the first time he's played the clone game. He's credited as developing Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham, Watchmen: The End is Nigh, and a VMware Player. Each is priced at $3.99, and each uses IP and assets that are obviously not his to use.
Our Take
We provided the above link to show what Sigman was tweeting about. We don't recommend that anyone downloads these knockoffs. You would be spending money on something that could very well put your PC at risk, in addition to financially supporting this nonsense.
