Industry of LIES - Mobile Game False Advertising 

If you want a VPN... you can use my link for a pretty large discount. Great way to support the channel and also get something you already wanted. get.surfshark.net/aff_c?offer_id=1448&aff_id=19647

These games aren't designed to have customers. They're designed to have victims.

I remember growing up as a kid in the 2000s and thinking people would just make quality free games out of some sort of creative passion. Man I miss that naïve optimism.

Thanks for covering this. I've gotten ads like this for years, they're horrible. Not only is it a false representation to the actually content, but the ads are often HEAVILY sexualized. It's disgusting and it's frequently aimed at kids.

Remember when Google play had an easy to use report button? Now you must go through so many steps: mails, screenshots, name of the game, id and the like that made reporting bothersome. Google helped these companies lie.

"Grind 300 hours for a skin or pay 2$ for it?" - Every mobile game ever

The most common trope I see in mobile game ads is the one where a female character gets jilted by her lover leaving her homeless with a small child. They always end up in some ramshackle house and then the ad shows the supposed way you'll help her, which vaguely coincides with the gameplay offered by the advertised game. It always has the bed being made, and the fire being lit, but the "player" then always fails to close the window that freezing gusts are blowing through and the level progress is erased. So many games use this scenario in their ads.

PSA: On Steam, someone created a game where you *actually* play the game in the ad. They have a few of them including that Hero Wars game and the pin-pull game plus a few others. The game is called: "YEAH! YOU WANT "THOSE GAMES," RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET'S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM!"

Google should take some serous action against false advertising.

And websites and platforms wonder why people use ad-block. The ad industry has zero respect for the people they advertise to and will stop at nothing to get clicks or attention even if it means annoying, tricking, or flat our lying to people. They have been doing the same thing for decades and have not shown any interest in cleaning up their industry. This is why I do no feel the least bit bad about using ad block.

I love that the first two ads I got for this video were predatory mobile "games"

This is one reason adverts aren't adverts to me. They just piss me off. They're a punishment. Not an advertisement.

I love how what feels like every single mobile game ad on what-used-to-be-Twitter now has a community note saying “by the way, this isn’t the actual gameplay”. But still a terrible trend.

Mobile gaming hit the scene a lot like an intruder breaking into your house and beating your parents up for their CC info. A mostly unkind and uncaring environment.

And adding insult to injury: in most cases you have to skip the ad three times with a tiny button that only pops up after a delay. Makes those predatory ads even more infuriating. Also, I can't remember the last time I saw a "normal" ad.

Time for consumer protection agencies to start taking a look at the mobile market (something that is log overdue...) and suing the pants off these companies.

Lets not forget how self aware they are even going as far as to "make the actual game from those ads" only to do the exact same thing..

We should all start reporting these fake mobile game ads

Another issue is mobile games that dont falsely advertise have so many ads in them that they are impossible to enjoy without paying, like doodle jump. As someone who grew up with the mobile game market being mostly ad free and not having false adverts, it is crazy how in just over a decade the market is completely rotten

It's becoming a meme on to itself. Like your game has "made it" when it does a fake ad where you've got a mother and child in a cold broken down house with the "player" doing a terrible job of repairing it

If parents are smart.. buy your kid a console device so they’re never on an appstore

Worse part is the parents that shoved their kids in front of these games and now they think its ok to pay to win and $20skins

I was interviewed for a position in mobile gaming creation a few years ago, one thing that's missing from your anazlyze is the requirement for volume In these positions, you are promised a generous share of the profits for every game you make, in return you are "given" one programer, and you are required to release one game EVERY TWO WEEKS You can see how under that much flood, people resort to hiding cookie cutter cheap clones under... Well, two weeks of work

What truly infuriates me are the new anime AI ads, like Talkie: AI, claiming you can talk to the deceased. My daughter's mother just passed away 3 months ago, and she begged me to let her download it so she can say goodbye to Mommy.

man, ive had these toughts about 8 years ago where i just fellt scammed by every mobile game and to see nothing has been done and only got worse is sickening, thanks for the video. keep up the good work

I remember years ago I saw a mobile ad that straight up lied by using gameplay footage of the pc game banished

I’m studying advertising, and if I ever made an ad for school like the fake ads did then I would be kicked out of my program.

There's a game on Steam that does nothing but actually implement some of those games from those false mobile game ads and it's actually pretty good.

Ever stood in a large crowd and thought that odds are there's probably at least one dangerous psychopath or deranged psychotic in there with you? Now imagine standing in that same crowd and realizing that statistically speaking most of them have probably paid for an in-app purchase in a mobile game before. The latter fact is much spookier if you ask me.

The mobile game ads are so outrageous that i just dont trust ANY ad i see on my phone

What I hate the most about the ads is They use gameplay from famous AAA games like Age of Empires and use it to market their trash.

What i despise more the anything are ads that intentionally lose the game. It makes me so pissed

No annoying music, excellent narration and interesting uploads. Thank you.

Blizzards new mobile is starting off by refunding beta supporters with an un-useable currency forcing you to re-buy anything you previously purchased on the beta after they have raised the rates. Plus they will ban your account if you bring this up to customer service... But they are very thankful for the 20 years of support.

As a note, Hero Wars is HQ'd in Cyprus, which is an island so steeped in fraud that I'm surprised it really exists.

My father before he died, caught on to the mobile games industry predatory nature and believed that that reflected the state of the games industry as a whole.

At the first hint of trouble these companies will often just close up shop only to register under a different name. Then the games are given a reskin and slight tweaks before being put on the play store. Suddenly the games will have millions of downloads with an incredible amount of 5 star ratings but very few reviews. These companies just play the algorithm game, and win, because the repercussions of operating this way are painfully slow if they are ever seen in the first place.

I never realized how evil these mobile games are. I could always tell the ad was a scam. But these companies are trying to suck money out of the most vulnerable of people.

What is even worse is that multiple of this game developers/companies are even aware of that and they have the impudence of making even worse ad's which are like "Heeeey, are you sick of all those false game advertising?? Well now I found the real game!!!" or "Noooo you've downloaded the wroooong game!!! You have to download through this and use the cooodee..." 😑

I've always wondered how they get away with this

I’ve seen the ads and comments saying they’re fake. Glad to see a in depth video about it, good work!

You hit the nail on the head. Developers want to make "tag lines" not products. Steam aside, even consoles are seeing an increase in shovelware because of the hard-on for mobile marketing strategies and progression loops. Nintendo's eShop is HORRIBLE. Mobile gaming is honestly one of the worst things that has ever manifested.

But what I don’t understand is WHY. The fake games don’t even look that much harder to make than the actual ones. Why not make the game they actually advertise??

Mobile Gaming: Expectations vs. Reality. 'Nuff said.

The mobile game developers: The game is “free” so you can’t be mad that I’m lying to you. I don’t get how anyone could play these games if the developers are like “my game looks to shit to advertise, so I’ll present a totally different game”.

Sometimes you have to admit that, sometimes, when people are stupid enough, you can't actually save them.

As someone who worked in mobile gaming as an analyst and as a "creative manager" (basically, the guy who writes scripts for mobile ads) I can write a whole essay on the topic. Even from what little time I worked in both positions. Actually having any gameplay that is representative of the real thing in those "fake gameplay" ads is not required unless you already caught the eye of the regulators. You usually try to at least get the "feel" of the real gameplay, because it boosts conversion rates, but the moment any popular trend comes around all that goes out of the window. Trends are short-lived, so you have to capitalize on them fast, whether or not it fits your game. Also, I doubt developers get even the fraction of money that is spent on ads. Ad-makers are not paid much, mind you, rather there are from 20 to 50 or even more ads made for a single game in any given month (if we are talking about large studios with most obnoxious ads). They are A/B tested into the ground and the best performing are picked for mass audience (RU-vid probably only gets "the cream of the crop"). After a month or two ad-makers get reports from analytics team and depending on which KPIs require boosting the ad strategy shifts if necessary. You may try to be original, faithful to actual gameplay and overall try to make "good ads", but most likely those will perform poorly and most people won't even see your ads (also no bonuses for good perfromance you and the uncreative dude who just copied the trends, probably made 2 times more ads than you). Most agregious ads usually get the most attention, attract the kind of audience that is more susceptible to manipulation, that boosts the numbers and the vicious cycle continues. I'll stop rambling here, but honestly, I could go on...

As a game designer, this has been a massive epidemic on mobile platforms.

Thank you so much for this. I was genuinely very confused about it. I downloaded the doge dog one and saw the quality of the music wasn't what was in the ad, and the physics of the minigame were different. And that didn't include the fact it was just a minigame, and not the whole game. Never trusted a mobile game ad since.

I could be wrong. But isn’t there damage to the user who downloads then deletes because of the data collected while the app is on your phone? The Apple Store shows you what data is tracked for every app - and most popular free apps take insane amounts of data that is attached to your identity.

I remember getting an inappropriate ad with n#ked characters, but i was unable to report it since there was no report button

So true. I male it a point to never even look at a game that's advertised on social media

You know what they say "If something is free, you are the product."

It got so bad that a studio made a game collection of all the games seen in the ads.

The ad will say something like “Omg, I can’t beat this level” and it’s literally a puzzle a toddler could solve.

I love the ads that state 'the game is exactly like the ads' and when you check out the game, EVERY review says it's nothing like the ads. Now just imagine how well a game would do if it WAS the ads?

It all comes down to greed and corruption. Until people with good souls are in charge of things, things will only get worse as time goes on.

FYI, Hero Wars minigames do exist now as a very tiny insignificant part of the game, but they did NOT exist before for a long time. They added it fairly recent to pretend they are not false advertising.... That's how sneaky they are! HW is actually a good game if you are into building heroes, interesting skills and good mechanics, but yeah, as every mobile game they are plagued with false advertisement and abusive monetization. Unfortunately, mobile gaming is just cancer.

Now we have creator paid to ad that crap and they even mock us for doubting the ads.

I have noticed that Royal Match here in the UK has got a bunch of high profile celebrities advertising it. The shady ones who are definitely part of the clan.

This makes a lot of sense. Came to this channel because I was curious as to why these companies advertise these games with garbage. I was thinking there had to be an incentive for them to do so. Your video explained that. So I shall Subscribe and hit that like button.

I've seen mobile game ads that use footage of PC games to advertise their work. The most recent example I recall was a mobile game using footage from Starship Troopers Terran Command

Why did loot boxes get forbidden in normal games, but no one is doing against these money, time and soul stealing, industry raping "games"?

i always wondered how they kept getting away with this kind of false advertising, now it makes sense, it's in there so they can claim what the person saw was in there, but just barely

This phenomenom reminds of the 'healer' ads I get in my mailbox. They have deliberately wrong spelling in their ads, just to lure the most stupid people in. Maybe the wrong advertisements just wants to have the most stupid in their system.

It may have been this very channel, but I remember seeing clips of a developer's symposium on mobile gaming and it was largely centered around the psychology of the consumer and how to use ploys and tactics to milk them for as much money as possible and not so much on how to make quality software. It would have been a few years ago now.

I'm glad you've made a video on this and I hope more people do. The mobile industry is really scummy. Not only do they false advertise, but screw over the players with ridiculous micro transactions, a broken game, p2w items, and the list goes on. I've been a mobile player for over a decade and the downfall of mobile games is sad. I'm just praying that these upcoming mobile games like Warframe, AC jade, Demon Slayer, 7DS Orgin will be something better. 2023 really haven't been a good year for mobile games

Recall when some adds had b-roll of Age of Empires 2 as adds. The game was a typical time based base builder. Crazy stuff.

The most sickening ones are those that steal footage from actual games and act as if it's their property

These games are what I imagine a game designed by AI would look like, if that isn't infact what it is.

What is sad is that these companies have all the money they need to make a seriously good, even Triple A game.

One caveat is that false advertisement seem to be a problem mostly with western mobile games. From my experience, Japanese mobile games - at least those based on existing anime series - are honest in the promotional video that shows the game play. One reason why is because these games are often done in collaboration with the anime studios, who have a strong incentive not to tarnish the reputation of the anime they are trying to sell. A primary goal of these Japanese anime mobile game is to make people become more invested into the anime series and the characters from said anime. They want you to love the anime series so that you will buy the music cds, blurays, and other related merchandise. These games are often story-driven, with a significant visual novel element, often with professional voice acting work by the anime voice actors and voice actresses themselves.

I remember getting a mobile game ad which just took footage from Elden Ring and I have never seen it since

"Well, imagine my shock?" - Paul Joseph Watson

The South Park episode "Freemium Isn't Free" showed how evil the mobile gaming industry is.

What people need to do is send this video (and others like it) to your local politicians, house reps, and other various government tip lines. Yes, at face value these will be ignored due to lobbying but if enough of these get flooded in, this is how oversight is created.

As someone who pays a lot of attention to the mobile gaming industry, the deceptive ads are EXTREMELY annoying. It's even worse when it's a smaller game that you have come to actually play and enjoy, and then you start seeing them run deceptive ads for that game as it grows a bigger audience. It's like COME ON, I know that's not the game because I play it every day.

I love the uploads man. Thank you for remaining consistent! You pick some really good topics for discussion👍🏻👍🏻

Just a reminder, everything that's happening in the mobile space right now is exactly what the industry at large wants to achieve with the real gaming market. There was a time when mobile gaming was unironically genuinely "feared" to be a real competitor to the console market as a whole, and now look how far it has fallen. Before someone scoffs at the notion, consider all the things we have in gaming nowadays that we used to make fun of mobile games for even considering. That and the fact that companies hire behavioral psychologists to condition players into being pliable and addicted, specifically to get the RESPONSIBLE players into a vulnerable position mentally.

Imagine what today's babies and little kids would consider as nostalgic when they grow up.

Mobile gaming had so much potential to be amazing. Instead it turned into some sort of false advertised gambling scam abomination

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

These guys said 10 years ago that lootboxes are okay.

I have been seeing numerous trends for this lately (because I play actual idle games and occasionally boost via ads), so good to see someone make a decent video about it. There's specific trends that just pop up and every game claims to have it or has an ad that's made in such a specifically similar way that I feel the company is the same, even though they're not. Notable examples include: - Run around for vague resources to explode upgrades all over the screen (winter, goblins, space, theme doesn't matter) - Merge things to not suck - Most combinations of 'Idle', 'Hero', 'Clans', 'Royale' and 'Clash' - Run at the numbers or overlevel the numbers - Phony tower defense - Angry emojis! - Vehicle puzzle Is that all? I think so.

This also applies to Todd Howard telling us about having unparalleled freedom of exploration in starfield only to find out its a loading screen simulator

Mobile games in 2013: Cut the fruit 🔪🥥🍉🥑🥝 🔪💣💥 Mobile games in 2023: Only 1% can complete this puzzle! 👉👌😳😮😱

Found this vid just to share my experience… a game I’ve gotten MULTIPLE ads for is just passing off Ghost of Tsushima as their own game… a console/pc game… as a mobile game

This is just what happens when we give kids phones

I never understood why they don't just make the game that they advertise and looks interesting

My favorite are the deceptive ads that are just stolen gameplay from other games. Like all the games that had age of empires gameplay and were pretending like they were the original from "back in the day"

I'd like to see a crackdown on the "win real money" games that advertise you can win thousands of dollars a month when the reality is you can, if you're either very good or very lucky, win a couple dollars a day and most require an initial buy-in or the game is made impossible without the purchase of 'booster packs' etc.

I haven't had a mobile game on my phone in years. Although, every time my phone (popular Korean brand) does a software update, it usually sneaks in a game or two.

Most people have an ad blocker in their browser, but most don't realise that you can also get an ad blocker for mobile app ads.

Learned my lesson way back on those Evony online ads 😂 even though that game sucked me in I know better now not to click on them.

It gets worse. I keep getting ads for a Genshin Impact ripoff using stolen Horizon Forbidden West gameplay footage in its ads.

Plus theres a 99.9% chance that almost every review section for those games are completely botted. Theres no way that a game so falsely marketed can get over maybe 2 stars

The only way to really fight the problem is to have dedicated people with a passion for gaming work to provide quality products.

The main thing I don't get about the popularity of mobile gaming is whenever I leave my house and am away from my PC, the last thing on my mind is gaming - I'm typically doing something like out for coffee or lunch, maybe going to the cinema or whatever. If I'm on a bus, train or plane I'm inclined to have a book.

Not only am I sick of false advertising, I'm also sick of pop-up ads in games that I actually used to like but can't play anymore because of those same excessive ads. It gets so bad that the application itself actually crashes and, in the most extreme cases, erases your progress in that game. Want some examples? Bowmasters, Bloody Bastards and anything from Alda Games.

This is why I actually have some level of respect for mobile game devs that are honest, even if their game is heavily monetized. Nothing more annoying than downloading A game and realizing it is nothing like it was advertised. Super snail is an example of a game that is heavily monetized but the devs are very blatant about it and make jokes in game over it. The ads I saw for it seemed mostly accurate (with maybe one exception? don't really remember)