GTA VI competitor Paradise turns out to be a Russian crypto rip-off
The developers behind Paradise apparently wanted to exploit the hype surrounding the upcoming launch of GTA VI next year to market their own game, which, according to the developers, combines elements from Grand Theft Auto and The Sims to create a new kind of open-world game that is also free to play. The trailer is quite impressive at first glance.
Two months after the trailer launch, however, it has become clear that Ultra Games Ltd.'s Paradise is nothing but a giant rip-off. As an investigation carried out by YouTuber Jetro and others shows, many elements in the trailer have been simply copied from other games, stolen or purchased from the Unreal Engine Assets Store. The game's website originally listed numerous influencers as advertising partners who had never heard of Paradise.
Although the game is already listed on Steam, it remains unclear whether a game even exists or whether a trailer was simply created. In a FAQ, the developers attempt to explain some of the controversies. For example, why the building in Hong Kong, the address of which is given on the Ultra Games website, has never been heard of. The office is supposed to be somewhere else but the developers refuse to divulge the exact location. The apparently unlicensed vehicles and brands that can be seen in the trailer will not be in the final game, they say.
The reason for pretending to develop a game at all, unsurprisingly, relates to cryptocurrency. ParadiseTap, or $PAR for short, is currently distributed via a smartphone app, which in turn is distributed via Telegram rather than via official channels such as the Google Play Store. In order for this cryptocurrency to have value, it has to be used to purchase objects in the game, but can also be exchanged for real money, with 100,000 $PAR being worth around $500.
Ultra Games Ltd. started selling this cryptocurrency months ago. The big catch is that although $PAR can be bought for real money, it cannot be sold or transferred. The hype surrounding the game and the expectation that the value of $PAR will increase dramatically if the game is actually released is intended to fuel demand for the useless cryptocurrency, allowing the developers to make money without ever having to develop a game.
The Ultra Games Ltd. team, which is at least partly based in Russia, still claims to be working on the game for a release in 2025. However, even if it is released, downloading the game is not recommended, as Paradise is advertised as having anti-cheat software with kernel access, meaning that the developers could potentially gain access to personal user data.
Source(s)
