Digital Sun Games cancels public ReVamp playtest over AI-driven cloning fears

Digital Sun Games canceled its wide public Steam playtest for roguelike ReVamp. Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 model triggered fears of rapid decompiling and cloning. Tens of thousands had signed up before the studio moved to a vetted Discord playtest. That NDA-gated playtest holds a few hundred players ahead of ReVamp's March 2027 launch.

Digital Sun Games had tens of thousands of signups for the wide Steam playtest.
The replacement Discord playtest grants manual access to a few hundred players only.
Steam offers only country-based access controls, with no way to vet individual accounts.
Discord access requires signed NDAs and lets Digital Sun monitor player activity live.

Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 model rollout triggered a surge of fast clones and decompiles.
Thousands of cheap clone products have already flooded Steam and Roblox, per the studio.
Digital Sun fears a vibe-coded clone could reach market before ReVamp's March 2027 release.
"If you can't show your game to the world without fearing it'll be cloned, something's broken." - Israel Mallén, Marketing Manager, Digital Sun Games

Digital Sun says storefronts need real protections for original work during public builds.
Future playtests and demos will run much closer to launch, functioning mainly as marketing.
That shift costs months of community feedback and reduced pre-launch visibility, per the studio.
Digital Sun cites its 250,000 wishlists as a cushion that newer, unestablished studios lack.

For Investors & VC: Add build-security and clone-exposure plans to diligence on pre-launch indie titles with replicable mechanics.
For UA & Marketing: Front-load paid creator and wishlist budget into launch windows to offset thinner organic pre-launch buzz.
For Service Vendors: Pitch code obfuscation and vetted closed-tester panels to indies with simple, easily cloned mechanics.