The Last of Us’ viral Nintendo Switch “rip-off” has been removed from the eShop

The Last Hope: Dead Zone Survival has been removed from the Nintendo eShop after going viral for its low-quality attempt to capitalize on the success of the release of The Last of Us' TV adaptation.

The details:

• In July, The Last Hope drew the attention of The Last of Us fans, with clips of the game's poor graphics, terrible gameplay, and undeniable "inspiration" from Naughty Dog's original IP being shared on social media. Those who were interested in the title, unsurprisingly, gave it very low review scores, with game analysts Digital Foundry calling it the "worst game we've ever tested." The majority of its assets were found on the Unity store, including a character model for the game's version of the central character Ellie.
• After only a week of availability, the game has been removed from the Nintendo eShop (via VGC), and trailers for the title have also been removed from YouTube by none other than The Last of Us publisher Sony. In many cases, low-effort games referred to as "shovelware" are often left to fade into obscurity; however, it appears that the attention drawn to the knock-off has raised alarm bells, with Sony aiming to stop fans from giving their money to its developers, West Connection Limited. Those who purchased the title can still download and play it.
• Shovelware has been a problem in the gaming industry since its inception, with low-quality copies of other games and successful IPs created with the intent of stealing money from unsuspecting fans of the original work, mainly parents and young children. After hundreds of cartridges were found buried in a landfill, some consider the Atari 2600's ET to be one of gaming's first and most notable pieces of shovelware. Since then, digital storefronts such as Steam, the PlayStation and Xbox stores, and, most notably, the eShop have become littered with them, and it appears that Nintendo, in particular, is hesitant to address the issue without direct takedown requests.

More gaming news:

• Starfield will support cross-save between PC and Xbox Series X/S, with those who buy the game digitally from the Xbox or Microsoft stores receiving a free copy for the other platform as part of Xbox Play Anywhere.
• Riot Games' new fighting game, Project L, will be playable at EVO 2023, with a 2v2 mode shown off ahead of time. It will be available for all event attendees to try out on the show floor, and we expect to hear opinions from some of the world's best fighting game players.