Nintendo's 1-2-Switch Already Has A Steam Ripoff Game

Modern game development iteration is a beautiful thing. Companies who announce their prominent titles way ahead of schedule will see their games copied beforehand more and more. Such is the case for 1-2-Switch, a rather odd dueling game announced for Nintendo Switch at launch on March 3, 2017. Revealed only a few weeks ago, that concept has already been spotted and copied by 1-2-Swift, freshly out on Steam for €2.99, with a launch discount of 12%, one two percent, because jokes. And yes, it’s the same game, but in the most reductive, tattered, do-it-yourself way. Here’s the full description:

(sic) “1-2-Swift: It’s high noon” is a party game for 2 players but using only 1 set of HTC Vive or just keyboard! Duel your friend as a cowboy and shoot the bullet as soon as “High Noon” come!

 

 

Developer MNGOVR, who previously also put out Bomb U on Steam, managed to slip in a subtle Overwatch meme reference, because that’s what the kids are into these days. Though 1-2-Swift is likely meant for virtual reality (VR), according to the Vive being mentioned, it’s not exclusive to the costly gadget; there’s also a keyboard mode, which sort of destroys the whole reason for it to exist.

Since 1-2-Switch is one of the only games available at launch of the Nintendo Switch and it will cost a full €49.99, maybe the Steam alternative might snake some sales away. In the past, games like Burstfire had a similar approach, after the announcement for Rainbow Six Siege, as did Paladins after the success of Overwatch, though to much lesser extent. There have been plenty more, less memorable, attempts at trying to piggyback off another project’s momentum with a quickly patched together game plopped on Steam. With facilitating development engines like Unreal Engine 4 or Unity, it truly is the Wild West out there. See? We can make references as well.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed (@Daavpuke)