PopCap Distressed Over 'CopyCat' Games 88
GamesIndustry.biz, in an interview with PopCap Games chief creative officer Jason Kapalka, reports that the company is apparently a bit miffed at 'imitation games'. Puzzle games being what they are, Kapalka finds the number of Bejewel-like titles on the market frustrating. "Very few games are developed without reference to past games. There's always going to be titles that build on a previous mechanic or game. But there's a fine line between that and very bold-faced rip-offs that aren't adding anything to the game and are just trying to make a quick buck." Over at 1up, editor Ray Barnholt points out that PopCap is a funny company to be making that claim. Several of that group's most popular games are in turn tweaks or imitations of little-known Japanese puzzle titles from the 90s.
Re:Irony (Score:5, Interesting)
(RedOctane got their start making dance pads for Konami's games)
So what? (Score:3, Interesting)
So what? Microsoft has been making the same sort of statements for the get go (that people are stealing their works yada-yada) while at the same time copying/stealing/buying work from others, to the point that most of their product lines was never developped in-house. People are used to Microsoft, why not from other companies ? The old saying "you shouldn't criticize someone's body odor if you didn't shower yourself" somehow never seems to apply to companies...
HA! (Score:5, Interesting)
FTFS:
That's hilarious. One of PopCap's best-known games, Dynomite, is a direct ripoff of Taito's Puzzle Bobble, one of the best-known (and -loved) puzzle games of all time. It's not a very good one, either. It's "cheap", in that if the timer runs out while the animation for removing eggs from lines that would save you is playing, you lose (among various similar failings.)
PopCap can stick their whining about ripoffs right up their hypocritical, untalented asses.
Re:That's the way the game industry has always bee (Score:1, Interesting)
Exactly. And casual game producers/publishers like Popcap, Big Fish Games, Reflexive, etc. are some of the worst offenders when it comes to copying gameplay. A few years ago it was Bejeweled match-3 clones. Now it's hidden object games like the Mystery Case Files series. Casual gamers are buying them hand over fist, so you can't blame the companies. And small developers can make a (admittedly small) fortune by turning out derivative games that take a few months to develop.
I do enjoy some of the weird sites like Casual Explosion [casualexplosion.com] that have popped up to review these derivative games, however...
Okay, back to work making my own derivative hidden object game. (Seriously.)
Re:Time Out (Score:5, Interesting)
In my opinion, it's all in the presentation. A mediocre game with fluid, easy-to-use interface and pretty face interests me a LOT more than an amazingly-clever game with a crappy, ugly interface.
Simon Tatham's Portable Games are a great example of this. Those games are -awesome- ideas. But I would be much more inclined to play them more often if they were prettied up, and the interface made better. (Yes, I -have- considered doing this myself, but I'm not an artist, and not all that great at GUI design either.)
On the other hand, games from PopCap and such that are pretty always draw me in and at least get me to try them. Burger Rush is a good example here. It's -just- a Bejeweled clone with good graphics, and a little side-action. But my Sister has played through it at least 5 times, and my mother at least 7. They still enjoy it.
Damn it. (Score:2, Interesting)
I own a couple of your games and can honestly state they do not seem very original. For instance, I have seen a multitude of games similar to Bejeweled for years. Take a look in family arcades and bar-top arcade systems, jewel + puzzle games of this style have been around for about 15 years longer than Pop-cap has been in business.
It is very tempting to go through my MAME screenshot repository and find games PopCap did that look like older arcade titles, then begin sending email to each of these companies to make their own determination if PopCap is, in fact, the real copy-catter.
Anyone else with a library of screens for MAME, feel free to join in. If we could get PC to drop one game over a lawsuit, we'll never hear such dribble out of them again!