Plagiarism is a sour part of the video game industry. Whether it’s a mega-corporation punching down on an indie game, or a shady website from Pakistan stealing the hard work of others, it’s all wrong.
A personal post by an amateur investigator on Medium (the post has since been removed) claims that Twisted Voxel, an outlet that was once prolific on video game aggregator N4G before being banned, is run by content thieves that steal guides and reviews.
The post claims that Twisted Voxel’s “Editor-in-Chief”, Khuram Imtiaz, and Twisted Voxel’s “CEO”, Salal Imtiaz, also own and operate GameInfinitus.
The Medium post then shows a wealth of evidence that GameInfinitus has plagiarised reviews and guides from outlets such as TheGamer, GameSkinny, PlayStationLifeStyle, RPG Site, and many more respectable outlets.
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Fantasy review:
GameInfinitus’ Final Fantasy “review”:
The post appears to show evidence connecting Twisted Voxel and GameInfinitus via screenshots that show an account under the name “Twisted Voxel” sharing a plagiarised review from GameInfinitus on Game on Daily – a minor news aggregator that is not widely used.
There are other links between the website that are noted in the post and it does appear that the two sites are connected.
According to the author of the post, this evidence has been passed to outlets that have had their work stolen – and they aren’t happy.
TheGamer’s Editor-in-Chief called out Twisted Voxel’s “Editor” to ask if the plagiarised guides would be pulled. Mr. Khuram Imtiaz gave no reply.
Hey Khuram, I’ll refrain from publicly calling you out if you reply and tell me you’re going to pull all the Monster Hunter Stories 2 guides you’ve plagiarised from us.
— Kirk McKeand (@MckKirk) July 15, 2021
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Chandler Wood was not amused at having his words spun and plagiarised, and offered his take on Twisted Voxel/GameInfinitus’ alleged plagiarism.
I don’t get plagiarizing reviews. It’s like admitting that you had zero feelings about something for yourself, and your own experience wasn’t enough to elicit your own unique thoughts about the experience, so you just rip off somebody else’s. https://t.co/QSGUtQtMDv
— Chandler Wood (@FinchStrife) July 15, 2021
We’ve reached out to Twisted Voxel’s Khuram Imtiaz and Salal Imtiaz to see if they have any comments for this story, but at the time of writing, Khuram Imtiaz, GameInfinitus, and Twisted Voxel have all blocked any contact to us on Twitter and are not responding to emails. Nothing says “guilty” like a wall of silence…
The post also claims that Game on Daily, the aggregator that ranks so low it hasn’t been picked up by SimilarWeb, is supportive of the accused content thieves, despite the overwhelming evidence.
A reply from one of Game on Daily’s owners states that after being presented with the evidence, GameInfinitus has been banned for plagiarism. However, Game on Daily is “satisfied with the professional distance between the two sites,” seemingly acknowledging the evidence but disregarding it.
The post ends by explaining that it was originally posted on Pure Play TV, but due to legal pressure by the hosting provider, IONOS, after receiving a complaint by Twisted Voxel “CEO” Salal Imtiaz, the post has been removed.
