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Game developers are increasingly reporting a rise in unsolicited spam and potential scams targeting their studios. According to discussions on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and ResetEra, these messages often involve generic offers to create ports, mods, or remakes for existing titles, a trend attributed to the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools.
Developers like werezompire from Zeboyd Games have shared examples of these suspicious emails. One proposal requested 35,000 euros to port Cosmic Star Heroine to the Switch 2, despite the game already performing well on the original console. Other messages offered to port titles already in active development by the original creators or proposed remakes of retro RPGs without clear creative direction.
Brivs, creative director at BancyCo, confirmed this is not an isolated issue, noting that his studio receives emails promising magical ports to platforms where their games are already available. These senders often demonstrate a lack of basic research into the studios' current projects, suggesting the outreach is automated or poorly targeted.
Observers suggest this activity is driven by individuals attempting to capitalize on viral AI-generated content to secure quick payments. Some of these solicitations originate from startups posing as contract developers, using viral technical demonstrations to cold-call legitimate studios. There is concern that these entities may simply take payments without delivering functional work.
