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Apple pulls cloned games from App Store
- jmazur 15y ago"with titles like Plant vs. Zombie, Angry Ninja Birds, and Temple Jump" This doesn't surprise me.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- evilduck 15y agoClone games qualify as innovative and creative?
- hack_edu 15y agoWhat? Watching the Top Paid section for a new game, spec'ing it out, and shipping it to a contractor for a weekend, then selling it for $1.00 less than the original qualifies as creativity now?
- atomicdog 15y agoThey're not doing that, making a genuine clone and undercutting the competition is 100% okay (unless you're one of those pesky PIPA-supporting types) What these guys are doing is generally making a 20minute game such as pong and including a gallery of, say, Minecraft screenshots in the app. They then market the app in such a way that's designed to trick users into thinking they're purchasing Minecraft, when they're actually just purchasing a gallery of Minecraft screenshots. Case in point: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/eclipsecraft/id492415390?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/eclipsecraft/id492415390?mt=8
- 1880 15y agoMeanwhile, in Android... https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wikilibs.fan_temple_run_fan_2_app https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wikilibs.fan_templ...
- SquareWheel 15y agoThere is one paragraph, and it clearly says "Please note this is not the actual Temple Run game". There's plenty of real examples of people trying to confuse players into purchasing screenshots, this is not one.
- ceejayoz 15y agoIt has 1-5 million downloads and 50% one-star ratings. Intentional or not, it's certainly confusing people.
- 1880 15y agoHave a look at this[1] e-mail. Would you say that it's not a scam because it clearly says "this notice is not (...) associated with a continuation of services for domain registration"? [1]: http://i.imgur.com/1fJAh.png http://i.imgur.com/1fJAh.png (via reddit http://www.reddit.com/pbvtg http://www.reddit.com/pbvtg)
- SquareWheel 15y agoNo, I'd say that's clearly a scam. I don't believe that malice is involved in the app above, where it is obviously the case in the phony domain notice. I've seen them myself, it's why I apply WhoisGuard to my domains.
- 1880 15y ago
- theanswriz42 15y agoBet they aren't pulling the games Zynga have been ripping for sometime now.
- phn 15y agoHonestly, the case mentioned in the article is a direct scam in which the user is tricked into buying something thinking it is related to the original game. This is IMHO much worse than the zynga "ripoffs". That being said, I am also not fond of resourceful studios cloning other successful games.
- gtaylor 15y agoDefinitely a good point, but they're such a cash cow that you have to figure they will mysteriously avoid this new policy.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- hack_edu 15y agoOne can only wonder how many Apps would have to be purged in order to live up to this promise. Now imagine how many non-game apps would be under the same campaign; their entire App industry would collapse.
- cube13 15y agoI think that it really only applies in the games space. The basic features of most utility apps is pretty easily defined by the problem they're attempting to solve. The basic functionality of all Twitter apps, for example, are pretty much only what the Twitter API allows. They can do more than that(historical caching, thread aggregation, etc), but the basic functionality is to read your stream and post tweets.
- gurkendoktor 15y agoExcept that the App industry is not a direct profit maker for Apple at all. It is an ecosystem that boosts hardware sales. What matters is not the number of apps or the cash handed out to developers, it is end-user happiness. That's what leads to such seemingly incoherent decisions. Anecdotally, the apps with good ratings that I saw in the App Store charts have never been rip-offs.
- throwaway64 15y agoDefine "ripoff", angry birds is a rehash of a concept that has been very popular in flash games since pre-2000.
- gurkendoktor 15y agoWas the Flash game called "Disgruntled Ducks" and featured blue boars as the enemies? If yes, then it would be comparable to the OP. As far as I can see this is not about protecting gameplay concepts, rather than brands.
- duskwuff 15y agoA while ago, I was playing with a Playbook tablet... opened up their app store, and the top free and paid apps were a pair of games both called "Fruit and Ninja". (Not Fruit Ninja.) All kinds of classy.
- atomicdog 15y agoThey pulled "Temple Jump" because it received too much negative press coverage. However, "Eclipsecraft" and all the other scam games by "Top Best Adult Entertainment" are still available...
- bproper 15y agoPolicing seems like a good way to spend a little of the $100B in cash Apple has lying around. The happier their developer community, the healthier that ecosystem will be, and the more phones and tablets will be sold.
- robomartin 15y agoNext: Zynga! Please. Restore balance to the force!
- joejohnson 15y ago>>>Temple Jump, however, was a scam intended to trick customers into thinking the app is related to Temple Run. It had a similar icon, vague description, and a single screenshot that did not show any gameplay. Zynga does clone games (like nearly every studio does). However, their games are clearly distinct and not intended to trick customers of a competing product.
- gte910h 15y agoApple isn't just removing clones: It's removing clones that use the trademark of the original app to confuse. An important distinction.