It Took Microsoft Three Months To Remove A Game That Was An Edited Emulation Of A PlayStation Title

12 July 2025

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it-took-microsoft-three-months-to-remove-a-game-that-was-an-edited-emulation-of-a-playstation-title — It Took Microsoft Three Months To Remove A Game That Was An Edited Emulation Of A PlayStation Title

By this point, we’re all aware of just how much slop there is on any of the major gaming storefronts. For instance, the Nintendo eShop is home to a “provocative” One Piece clone titled Pirate Anime Quest: One Boys’ Journey, A Piece of Island Love. Elsewhere, the PlayStation Store, which is littered with shovelware and spam games, made an effort to delete many of them back in February, but it’s a losing battle.

However, things took a rather interesting turn when it was discovered that the Xbox storefront was playing host to an edited version of a PlayStation title being run via emulation. The game, which has since been removed by Microsoft, was sold and passed off as a legitimate game.

It Took Three Months For Action To Be Taken On This 1:1 WipEout Copy

As first spotted by TrueAchievements, and as reported on originally by Digital Foundry, Anti-Gravity Racing WipEout was originally released in April and sold for $14.99, except there’s just one problem — it’s not an original game.

Through some handy side-by-side and general gaming knowledge, John Linemann was able to determine that the game was largely nothing more than an emulated version of the original WipEout series, specifically WipEout and WipEout 3: Special Edition.

While the game’s initial menu was as unique as shovelware gets, the meat of the game was the classic WipEout that we all know that’s been modified via texture injectors to remove any original elements that might tip off that it’s not a new game.

Well, so much for that. The game has since been removed, and clicking the original product page link leads to an error code on Microsoft’s side.

Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time that a PlayStation title was seemingly ripped off and ported to Xbox. Back in 2022, a God of War clone was available, featuring a near-identical version of Kratos. It was promptly removed, and while it was nowhere as egregious as running an emulated version of a real game, it does stand as another example of just how unfettered the overall digital storefront landscape has become.