Now, here is an interesting new drama blowing the wind in gaming. The developers of PEAK issued a nuclear warning over the Roblox rip-off of their game, CLIFF. And, well, they do have their point. According to the original developers, they would rather have their game being pirated than see a phenomenon such as this microtransaction-ridden garbage being played. Things indeed have started to get rather ugly with the game racking up over 163K plays.
Here is the thing: PEAK, the real one, is a physics-based platformer wherein one climbs, jumps, and maybe gets pushed down to the mountain. The game enjoys a small cult following of design aficionados, being designed with passion. Then came along this Roblox game named CLIFF, which looks suspiciously much like it. In case you wondered, it stands for microtransactions being…A LOT.
The PEAK devs were aggressive. Their answer was, “Would rather you pirate our game than play this microtransaction-laden slop ripoff.” Ouch. But the comment itself was fair, wasn’t it? Upon reading the comments, gamers were in a frenzy. Some were labeling Roblox as “plague on every parent’s wallet,” whereas others were jocularly commenting that at least CLIFF is free (but at what cost?).
Roblox has been a weird medium for discussing clones. One of the users made some astute remarks, “This has been happening since the beginning of Roblox. Any game you know has a Roblox clone.” And, yeah, pretty much true. From knockoffs of Among Us to full importations of Fortnite, Roblox is an ecosystem forged on imitation. So, this time around, however, they want the original devs to speak.
All in all, though, the comments were a mix of chaos and support. “Some gamers formed a mob that was aghast at the idea of consenting to put money into a ripoff when they could have just bought the original—equated roughly to buying a McDonald’s meal—with the rest of the crowd roasting the AI-generated thumbnails CLIFF was using.” Then came the defenders of Roblox arguing that CLIFF “is better than that paid-to-win PEAK game.” (Sure, Jan.)
Real kicker? Some of those gamers even agreed with the developers. One shop said, “When piracy is the ethical choice, you know something’s messed up.” And really, the gamers were not wrong. If the alternative is supporting a cash-grab clone, maybe sailing the high seas doesn’t sound so bad after all.
The problem with the entire business model of Roblox becomes the bigger discussion. “Lack of creativity in the new Roblox genre is going to be the biggest downfall to development careers,” one frustrated developer stated. Passion parades get buried while knock-offs rise to the top. Then kids are literally dropping real-world money into a giant welfare trap of steaming virtual garbage, and it becomes pretty much a situation impossible to fix.
So with all this, where does it put us? Well, the PEAK devs made it pretty clear where they stand; gamers are either applauding or rolling their eyes. But one thing is certain: This is not going to be the last time we get such a dose of drama over Roblox clones. Maybe the original devs can throw in a few torrent site links for good measure next time?
