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[Kuran]

They're making new games. Just because they're similar to existing titles doesn't mean they've done anything wrong. Plenty of devs make derivative trash and get away with it, unfortunately its not a crime.

Oh comeon, CLEARLY they are completely plagiarizing the original source material.

This is exactly like that chinese version of Harry Potter, would you defend that with the same argument? That was also written with completely different words and names...

Gameloft, in my eyes, is a blemish on the shitty cellphone game culture that comes with iOS gaming. The only reason people are buying 99% of the trash on the Appstore, is because they are priced at 99cents

They should rename the OT Appstore gaming thread to "Welcome to the gaming ghetto"

 

[OnPoint]

You know, I thought Soul of Darkness was a pretty good Castlevania clone.

 

[TheChillyAcademic]

I think what the real problem is in this thread is that the OP thinks that horrible horrible looking Shadow game bears any sort of semblance to Uncharted.

 

[No_Style]

Holy palette swap, Batman! :lol

 

[dream]

Don't have a problem with this at all. Some of the best games were derivatives of, or inspired by other games.

If people could sue Gameloft, then Nintendo could likely sue Konami for "Metroidvania", or Capcom for Okami... and maybe Enix could sue Square, Atlus, Falcom, etc. for RPGs.

Something that did happen was, Konami sued Activision for Guitar Hero post-Harmonix, because of Guitarfreaks. But that's because of the guitar hardware, not the game itself.

Yeah, but it's particularly jarring when all this Gameloft shit came out over 18 months or so. And Sean didn't even include screenshots for stuff like:

 

[Jackson]

It's like how there are a bunch of weird off-brand soft drinks that taste SORT of like Dr. Pepper, and they even have "Dr." in their names, but they're not Dr. Pepper.

 

[Hero of Legend]

I hope they port all this to the 3DS/PSPhone/PSP2/jungle.

This.

Hey, I'd play NOVA 3DS, shame Halo DS never came to be.

BTW, It's obvious that N-Space was behind it, as it was using the Rogue Agent DS engine which they made IIRC.

Also, since Gameloft's porting Asphalt 5 from iPhone to the 3DS, then we just may see some of these on the 3DS as well.

Of course, Gameloft were already porting the series to the DS before.

 

[Salsa]

I just cant believe how fast these guys work. They have a clone for EVERY big game. I mean what the fuck the same team pulls out a RE5 clone and a Pokemon clone ?

 

[Kuran]

Why are people defending this?! RAAAGE

 

[Sean]

regardless of basing their games on existing successful franchises they're still making the games themselves, that is they still have to do the most important part of game development. most of the time gameloft's games are good aswell, so they're not screwing the people buying these. I can't see any reason to be offended on behalf of some much much bigger company

I'm not really pissed, I own some of their games and even said they were a decent developer in the OP. Was just wondering how they managed to get away with this stuff. They've based their entire business model off blatantly cloning successful franchises and they're profiting madly from it. From reading the replies I guess there's nothing that publishers can do about it though.

 

[BomberMouse]

Hey, don't forget "Hero of Sparta" which is obvously just a GoW ripoff

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

The demo for the original Gangstar was one of the most disgustingly racist games I have ever played.

Not ever going to give this company one cent.

:lol :lol you made me remember that GTA clone from Spike Lee's Inside Man

 

[Vyer]

If the question is 'why can they get away with it', then most of the thread is right; they aren't doing anything illegal.

If a game is interesting to me, I'm going to try it. Rarely does this include Gameloft games. In fact, I'm not sure I own any of the clones.

*Shrug* There's plenty of good stuff to choose from on the App Store that you can skip over this stuff entirely. It's not my cup of tea, but like all tastes when it comes to gaming, different strokes for different folks.


.... and really, if half of these games these try to rip off had good official options the clones would probably drop off fairly quickly anyway.

 

[Persona7]

They're not technically doing anything wrong unless they actually steal assets from the games they're copying. It's like how there are a bunch of weird off-brand soft drinks that taste SORT of like Dr. Pepper, and they even have "Dr." in their names, but they're not Dr. Pepper.

mister pibb tastes better than dr pepper

 

[kassatsu]

Modern Combat is like Counter Strike not Call of Duty

 

[neojubei]

Even though a lot of Gameloft's games are shameless ripoffs, they are pretty cool to play on a phone. I loved Gameloft's Star Battalion and I might buy Shadow Guardian.

 

[oracrest]

...how is it that Gameloft has never been sued for all their shameless ripoffs? ... How do they continue to get away with this?

Game design is a double edged sword.

On one hand, you have shameless cash-ins when one company copies what another company has successfully done in the past, but on the other hand, you have games that take the basic idea, and develop the genre in a good direction.

there is nothing really to be done about it. If there were laws in place to prevent anyone but nintendo from making platformers, or anyone but ID from making a FPS shooter, the games industry would have collapsed in on itself a long time ago.

Most entertainment, and even business at large follows this framework. You have a handful of pioneers that push things forward, and a lot of emulators that ride their coattails for cheap and easy success.

 

[Salsa]

Im more shocked by the fact that they got their hands on Earthworm Jim.

 

[Kuran]

Game design is a double edged sword.

On one hand, you have shameless cash-ins when one company copies what another company has successfully done in the past, but on the other hand, you have games that take the basic idea, and develop the genre in a good direction.

there is nothing really to be done about it. If there were laws in place to prevent anyone but nintendo from making platformers, or anyone but ID from making a FPS shooter, the games industry would have collapsed in on itself a long time ago.

Most entertainment, and even business at large follows this framework. You have a handful of pioneers that push things forward, and a lot of emulators that ride their coattails for cheap and easy success.

But their has to be a line to draw.. no developer (that made games that people talked about on GAF) has ever cloned successful franchises as close as Gameloft has. This is ridiculous.

 

[Haunted]

Dr. Skipper? Really? :lol

Even though a lot of Gameloft's games are shameless ripoffs, they are pretty cool to play on a phone. I loved Gameloft's Star Battalion and I might buy Shadow Guardian.

I don't think business practices like this should be supported if you're aware of the circumstances. :/

 

[dream]

Game design is a double edged sword.

On one hand, you have shameless cash-ins when one company copies what another company has successfully done in the past, but on the other hand, you have games that take the basic idea, and develop the genre in a good direction.

there is nothing really to be done about it. If there were laws in place to prevent anyone but nintendo from making platformers, or anyone but ID from making a FPS shooter, the games industry would have collapsed in on itself a long time ago.

Most entertainment, and even business at large follows this framework. You have a handful of pioneers that push things forward, and a lot of emulators that ride their coattails for cheap and easy success.

I get what you're saying but Gameloft obliterates the line between derivative and clone. I mean, take NOVA for example. It's fine if Gameloft wants to make a scifi FPS but...

You hold a gun like this:

You have a vehicle like this:

You fight in levels like this:

You shoot enemies that look like this:

Your character looks like this:

Shit, you even have a blue AI chick named Yelana talking to you the whole way...

 

[Haunted]

^ oh wow. I admit, that is cutting it quite close. They're definitely skirting the edge with some of these. Borderline cause for action.

I just cant believe how fast these guys work. They have a clone for EVERY big game. I mean what the fuck the same team pulls out a RE5 clone and a Pokemon clone ?

Development time is drastically reduced if you don't have to design, plan and quality control your game.

There's a reason most of these aren't regarded highly.

But their has to be a line to draw.. no developer (that made games that people talked about on GAF) has ever cloned successful franchises as close as Gameloft has. This is ridiculous.

It's exactly like Kobun posted before. Data East did win the lawsuit Capcom undertook against them with the verdict that cloning a game's look and feel can not be considered copyright infringement.


Gameloft might be ripping the overall aesthetics and the design off, but they are creating their own assets on their own engine (or legally licensed engine, I don't know).

 

[neojubei]

This thread has me thinking about buying NOVA, i will download the lite version to try it out.

I get what you're saying but Gameloft obliterates the line between derivative and clone. I mean, take NOVA for example. It's fine if Gameloft wants to make a scifi FPS but...

You hold a gun like this:

You have a vehicle like this:

You fight in levels like this:

You shoot enemies that look like this:

Your character looks like this:

Shit, you even have a blue AI chick named Yelana talking to you the whole way...

oh crap that is HALO

 

[Tomasooie]

I would say because to a certain extent, the market wants clones. Especially clones of a popular game that isn't on that device.

You saw this back in the early days. Atari grabbed Pac-Man, so you had K.C. Munchkin and Lock N Chase.

Activision specialized in this. Star Master was a knock off of Star Raiders. Chopper Command, Defender. Freeway, Frogger. Robot Tank, Battlezone.

These are perhaps a bit more blatant, and true, Activision did make some very original IP.

Freeway and Frogger were developed simultaneously and did not rip off of each other. But another example you could give for Activision is Kaboom!, which is a ripoff of Atari's Avalanche.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Probably the same reason movie studios don't sue over this.

I'm sure this is better than Transformers

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I dont' see anything wrong with it. They are basically the "Shasta" of videogames

Pretty much any popular product is going to have it's shameless imitators. (have you ever been in a 99-Cent store? That's pretty much all they sell) It's like generic off- brand videogames.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

lol at nova, level design can't be any worse than halo 2's.

 

[neojubei]

I'm sure this is better than Transformers 2

Agreed.


One thing you could say about gameloft they bring console like games to the iPhone/iPod/iPad that otherwise might not be made. If someone told me they can get uncharted, halo, God of war on the iphone, I would be interested. Not to condone what they are doing but it seems to work for gameloft

lol at nova, level design can't be any worse than halo 2's.

Have you see the trailer for NOVA 2?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ounByD3d0EY

 

[LCfiner]

Gameloft used to bug me with their IP rips but I don’t give a shit anymore. if those other publishers want to get on the app store and produce something better with the real IPs, they’re totally capable of doing so.

and while I tried out and couldn’t stand their FPS and TPS action games, the “let’s golf” games are pretty nice and that GT racing game actually runs at a crisp 60 fps at 960 x 640 on the iPhone 4. it was fairly impressive, actually.

 

[Chittagong]

Shit, you even have a blue AI chick named Yelana talking to you the whole way...

:lol no way!

 

[dream]

Have you see the trailer for NOVA 2?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ounByD3d0EY

Nice url :lol

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I have no problem with what Gameloft is doing. They are servicing a customer base that the original companies are ignoring. IMO, if the actual game companies got off their ass and put their games out on Android/iPhone, there'd be little room for these kinds of copies to thrive. But most of them don't care so I say kudos to Gameloft.

Now, the fact that Gameloft makes you buy your Android games directly from their site and not through the Google appstore is stupid beyond belief and that is why I haven't bought a single one yet. But, if keeping Google from getting their cut means more money for them than the lost sales, who am I to tell them what to do.

 

[neojubei]

I have no problem with what Gameloft is doing. They are servicing a customer base that the original companies are ignoring. IMO, if the actual game companies got off their ass and put their games out on Android/iPhone, there'd be little room for these kinds of copies to thrive. But most of them don't care so I say kudos to Gameloft.

Now, the fact that Gameloft makes you buy your Android games directly from their site and not through the Google appstore is stupid beyond belief and that is why I haven't bought a single one yet. But, if keeping Google from getting their cut means more money for them than the lost sales, who am I to tell them what to do.

Exactly.

 

[Nessus]

You can't copyright a game.

Only the music, name, characters, art assets, etc.

(As it happens you can't copyright a scenario for a movie, either. Hence Repomen being basically the exact same idea as Repo: The Genetic Opera)

 

[60_gig_PS3]

wow I didn't know Halo was on iphone that rocks! They shouldve made the named closer so people would know.

 

[Sean]

I have no problem with what Gameloft is doing. They are servicing a customer base that the original companies are ignoring. IMO, if the actual game companies got off their ass and put their games out on Android/iPhone, there'd be little room for these kinds of copies to thrive. But most of them don't care so I say kudos to Gameloft.

Well Rockstar (GTA Chinatown Wars) and Activision (CoD Zombies) are officially on the iOS app store so they're not exactly ignoring the market, but Gameloft's titles are closer to the console versions of those games.

 

[Monroeski]

Are not aware of the history of mankind?

FIFY.

 

[RustyO]

Zombie Infection

looks like shite, actually :lol

0:36 - Kitten! :lol

 

[Lijik]

Wow here i was thinking Dr Thunder was the king of the dr pepper rips, but here comes mothafukken DR RADICAL to steal the crown. Holy shit i would drink the fuck out of Dr Radical.

Edit- to stay on topic, i kind of the java days where gameloft over the course of developing the PoP mobile games perfected an action platforming formula they would use for fucking everything. A. creed, Beowulf, some pirates ip they made, PoP 08. They were all the same basic game.

Also their java version of Rabbids 1 is totally bootleg Sonic Rush.

 

[Azure Dream]

Guitar Rock Tour 2 (aka Guitar Hero)

I could've sworn the people who own Guitar Hero got a patent on that type of icon interface for music games, how they zoom in like you're driving down a race track. Maybe the patent wasn't granted, or they didn't defend it well enough?

 

[fernoca]

:lol no way!

Way! The name's Yelena though.

Think is that they still manage to make good games (Earthwork Jim, Prince of Persia Classic) and some of those sameless rip-offs are quite well made too.

 

[gblues]

I've wondered about this too. It turns out, while the game assets can be copyrighted, the game itself cannot. NOVA does look a lot like Halo, but it doesn't use any of Halo's assets so Bungie can't do anything more than whine.

 

[Odrion]

Gameloft are actually great developers and their imitations are awesome in a bollywood sort of way.

 

[seady]

The iPhone market is pretty much full of shameless imitators anyway. Not just Gameloft.

 

[Sqorgar]

GameLoft is just greedy. They want the prestige and success of something like Halo without the talent, ambition, or creativity of Halo. In absence of creative competence, they rely on technical competence to emulate it as closely as possible... They create screenshots that look the same, but their games lack passion and soul. They are the video game equivalent to Real Dolls.

Just like Zygna, they are in it for the money and aren't willing to put the effort into to create something unique that is worth money.

 

[Dick Laurent]

I've wondered about this too. It turns out, while the game assets can be copyrighted, the game itself cannot. NOVA does look a lot like Halo, but it doesn't use any of Halo's assets so Bungie can't do anything more than whine.

I don't think you want to dream about this world where john romero no doubt would be king. /shudder

 

[SolsticeZero]

As long as it's good, they can rip off whatever the fuck they want.

 

[JimboJones]

Only clone game I remember getting into trouble was Sega suing EA over Simpsons Road Rage because it played a hell of a lot like crazy taxi.

I have only played NOVA and it was pretty decent for what it was, just let down by the touch screen only interface, as long as they keep there titles cheap I don't mind them bringing crapish copy cat stuff out:lol

 

[bdouble]

Is it just worse because the original game isn't on the platform? I don't see you pulling this statement when Saints Row releases. Sure it might not happen as much on consoles but it does happen. Dante's Inferno GoW. Forza and GT. There isn't anything wrong.

Just because Gameloft has created so many doesn't make it wrong. Nothing wrong with it an hell some forms of imitation can be great. See Retro Games Challenge.

 

[lucius]

Nova controls pretty good for an iPhone game that Modern Combat game the controls are bad yet it is a top seller. I have Let's Golf and it does play just like Hot Shots Golf and it was just what I wanted on my phone. But like the original poster I wondered why they didn't get in trouble either.

What is that GT ripoff called ?
And is it any good ?