Threes and 2048 are different games. The differences are pretty substantial. Yes, Threes is almost certainly a better game. 2048 is a game that takes hundreds o

Threes and 2048 are different games. The differences are pretty substantial. Yes, Threes is almost certainly a better game. 2048 is a game that takes hundreds of turns and the "meta-game" is about knowing when to play fast (spamming into a corner) and when not. Threes gets around the tedious aspect by allowing larger numbers to spawn, and having more strategic depth in general. What made 2048 go viral was that it was open-source, so people could modify it or write AI or analyze it, and that it's really simple. The interface is spartan, to its benefit. At each turn, there are only 4 options. The rich, 40-hour J-RPGs of the '90s and new German-style board games just aren't going to come about in the mobile space. The Gresham's Law factors in game virality used to piss me off (ask a Googler who was there in 2011) but I'm sort of resigned on that issue, at least at this point. You occasionally get a casual gem like Angry Birds or Threes or 2048. That's about the best that space can do. And that's OK. To its credit, 2048 probably brought exposure and more users to Threes, once people got bored with the simpler, free game.