If you can believe it, a second Animal Crossing-like knock-off game has appeared on the PlayStation store recently. Dubbed “Anime Village Online,” the sole screenshot available for the game looks not only heavily inspired by Animal Crossing, but almost like an HD mod for New Horizons. Spotted by Redditor YellowFlower69, a post on Reddit has started making the rounds for how egregiously it cribs from Nintendo’s cozy franchise.
With a scheduled release date of 2027 and only a brief description, one has to wonder if Anime Village Online will even see the light of day. The PSN store listing (which is still active as of the time of writing) reads, “Welcome to Anime Village Online, a cozy life simulation game where you can create your dream village, decorate your home, and enjoy a peaceful world — all while playing solo or with friends online.” Reportedly, the game will feature co-op for up to ten players, built-in game chat, and even cross-platform multiplayer. It would be something if this wound up on Nintendo Switch.
Now, you might be wondering why the headline reads “another” Animal Crossing knock-off. Earlier this year, a game dubbed “Anime Life Sim” appeared on the PlayStation Store with a similar aesthetic and knock-off quality to it. Spotted by Good Vibe Gaming, their digging revealed that the game was merely an asset flip from the game creation kit “Fab.” Similar to how Unity has a store of assets developers can buy to include in their games, Anime Life Sim was merely a repackaging of the “CozyLife Social Sim Game” pack from Fab that was being passed off as an original creation.
What’s shocking is that Sony allowed another game like this on its store after already being called out for a similar game. Rip-offs like this appear all the time on digital storefronts nowadays thanks to how hands-off each console manufacturer has become, but it still sucks to see such blatant attempts at a cash grab become so common.
Past Animal Crossing content
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete revealed – Coming this December
Three new Animal Crossing plushes are joining Sanei’s All Star Collection
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
