Microsoft’s Edge extension store is speculated to have hosted “pirated copies” of classic console games like Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Mario Kart 64, Pac-Man, Tetris, Cut The Rope and even its own game Minecraft.
The Verge reported that the developers behind these offers were not Microsoft, Nintendo nor “any other” related parties.
It was found that these games were being hosted on the extension for the Microsoft Edge web browser where they had been hiding for more than three months.
The report also says that the Sonic game, a couple of Pac-man games, Fruit Ninja, Temple Run and a number of other classic games have been removed from the platform. The only game that remains on the extension is Google Chrome’s dinosaur game.
(Image: The Verge)
What is a surprise is that Microsoft itself appeared to have promoted its browser extension in what looks to be a now-deleted tweet from the company’s official @MSEdgeDev account, which The Verge saw via ResetEra.
Initially, there were around 35 games across 10 different developers from different game publishers but had a similar description to the original games. This means that they could be coming from the same source.
(Image: The Verge)
One of the users installed the Mario Kart 64 game from the Microsoft app store and posted a screenshot from the Edge browser extension that was showing the compressed archive containing the ROM that the extension downloaded. The users also said that he installed a Pac-Man extension, and it “seems like it was using direct assets from the original game.”
After the report, Microsoft initiated damage control and the games are being removed from the Edge extension list as they are being discovered.
However, it is uncertain how many games are left and waiting to be found by Microsoft. The company hasn’t commented on the issue yet.
