PSA: PokeMon apps for iPhone and Android are fake

This week the fact that a illegitimate clone of the game PokeMon Yellow (the special Pikachu edition, that is) is busting up the charts in the iTunes App Store charts for most popular download. While the game might download decently, you should note that the vast majority of people who have fallen for the promise of a PokeMon mobile game have found the game to not work in the slightest beyond the start screen. The same is true of Android with any app you download at the moment with the PokeMon name on it: Nintendo has not yet brought the game to the market, so whatever you're downloading – it's not the real deal.

The process you must go through to get an application uploaded to any official app market today does not include an extensive copyright infringement search, so it is left up to the companies who hold the rights to said games to find them and file a complaint. Much in the same way we spoke recently about how YouTube would not be able to function if it had to check each video for its legitimacy before it allowed it to go public, essentially the same seems to be true here with app stores. What they're relying on instead is the public to act as police while they remain the judge.

If you find any sort of PokeMon app or essentially any Nintendo-related game on any app market and you suspect that it may have been uploaded illegally, first check to see what the name of the developer is. If it's not the same as the group that developed the game before it was brought over to the mobile world, you've got yourself a scammer – and you should report them to the app store you're in as soon as you can.

If you see something, say something folks. This is not the same as developers getting their name out there with demos, it's nothing like testing games when their creators want them to be sent out for free for that purpose. It's scammers profiting from the hard work of others, plain and simple.

Also meanwhile we'll just have to continue to wait for Nintendo to break down and start in on the mobile world with apps – the world needs its PokeMon on iPhone, and it needs it now!

[via Ars Technica]