Scammers are pretending to be an indie game to sell cryptocurrency
Using Outerverse's name and art for fake blockchain metajunk
Everyone can agree that it is at least a little bit funny when scammers run fake NFT drops and cryptocurrencies to fleece idiots, but it's less funny when innocent people get caught up in a scam. The publishers of Outerverse, a game about building automation and battling bosses, say scammers are pretending to run a blockchain version of the game and using this to sell cryptocurrency. It seems an obvious scam, which can't be good for the game's image.
The real Outerverse launched into early access this month, made by Tbjbu2. It's a craft-o-fighty game about travelling through space, stopping on planets along the way to build giant automated industries and fight big bosses. The real Outerverse is in early access on Steam and the Epic Games Store. What it's definitely not is part of the blockchain cryptoverse metafiction.
Outverse publishers Freedom Games say it's being ripped off by the so-called Outerverse Metaverse & Decentralized Platform, a website which appears to be a version of Outerverse using cryptocurrency for... something? Freedom Games say it "illegally uses the real game's assets and the trademarked name" and yup, that's some Outerverse artwork alright. This crap Outerverse is selling a cryptocurrency which supposedly does... something?
"$OUTERVERSE is developed Game Metaverse & DexSwap platform that connects gamers and enables trade token," the website says. "This gives $OUTERVERSE a real practical utility within the OUTERVERSE ecosystem. Embrace a platform where gamers and blockchain converge!"
Mate that's just words. No particular words. Just some words. I also like that a link pointing to a section on 'tokenomics' (an actual real cryptocurrency term) is labelled "takenomics", a delicious Freudian slip. Even the site selling $OUTERVERSE warns, "Anyone can create a BEP20 token on BSC with any name, including creating fake versions of existing tokens and tokens that claim to represent projects that do not have a token." I cannot imagine reading all of this and thinking "Yes, that's for me."
But while anyone who buys into this has more money than sense, being associated with a scam would be a problem for the actual game. Freedom Games say they've contacted the company hosting the website to get it taken down, but don't have high hopes. They also say their legal team are looking into "any and all remedies." I reckon it's unlikely anyone who's taken in by this would know not to take it out on the developers, too.