Pixelmon Master, the famous Pokemon scam that still exists

Pixelmon Master has been out for more than two months and appears to have sneaked past the legal departments of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company.

The mobile game, still available on Google Play, is a complete clone of the Pokemon franchise down to the names and design. Ironically, publisher VanessaAntoniaLi claims that Pixelmon Master is "not" an official Pokemon game for Android, but the average gamer will have to skip a few hoops to read those claims in the descriptive panels.

The dubious publisher also showed no fear of potential lawsuits, having been quite busy promoting Pixelmon Master as a "new Pokemon adventure" and "best Pokemon remake" across multiple Facebook pages. Sponsored marketing campaigns have fostered downloads (and profits) despite copyright infringement.

To make matters worse for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, the Android clone isn't alone. The same source that promoted Pixelmon Master is behind many other Pokemon villains like Poke Fairy, which is also available on Google Play. The games, descriptions, complaints and everything in between are similar to two peas in a pod. It goes without saying that the publisher VanessaAntoniaLi exists simply as a name. Poke Fairy, for example, was published by GaoXubin. The whole operation is a huge scam.

Both Pokemon villains (and others) are downloadable and playable for free. However, they do support microtransactions. To create a unique character, players will request "some beautiful costumes" from the in-game store which can be upgraded to be "more beautiful and powerful than before": pay to win. Microtransactions will likely cover other avenues as well such as removing a daily limit for progression and equipping repeaters.

That said, don't even think about downloading Pixelmon Master or Poke Fairy. Pokemon clones are full of malware for phishing personal data and spreading to other devices. Like any malware, they can do any number of things to cause all sorts of damage. Nintendo and The Pokemon Company need to take action as soon as possible to remove such apps from Google Play as thousands may have already been victims in the past couple of months.

Elsewhere, Pokemon Sword and Shield - official versions - were released this week. The fan base has been a bit stingy on the developer cutting features and Pokemon in the final releases. For those still interested, Sword and Shield differ only in the Pokemon players will be able to catch. Zacian, for example, is a legendary Sword exclusive capture. Zamazenta is located in Shield.