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Zynga Responds to Copy and Paste Criticism |
Listed in: News Tags: buffalo studios, dream heights, mark pincus, nimblebit, tiny tower, zynga
Last week, we talked a bit about Zynga’s latest game, Dream Heights. More specifically, we talked about the fact that Dream Heights is a pretty blatant copy of 2011’s official iPhone Game of the Year, Tiny Tower. At least, that’s how Tiny Tower’s developer, NimbleBit, feels.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus disagrees with NimbleBit’s assertions, and instead believes that Dream Heights is just the next evolutionary step in a long line of tower games. His response, issued in an internal memo, referenced games like SimTower and Yoot Tower as other games that laid the framework for Tiny Tower, which in turn served as the basis for Dream Heights.
For the sake of fairness, here’s a direct quote:
“With regard to Dream Heights and the tower genre, it’s important to note that this category has existed since 1994 with games like Sim Tower and was more recently popularized in China with Tower of Babel in 2009 which achieved 15 million DAUs. On iOS there has been Yoot Tower, Tower Up, Tower Town, Tower Blocks and Tiny Tower. Just as our games, mechanics and social innovations have inspired and accelerated the game industry, its 30 year body of work has inspired us too.”
Of course, SimTower and Tiny Tower are very different games, a point made by NimbleBit’s Ian Marsh in the company’s rebuttal:
“It is a smart idea for Mark Pincus and Zynga to try and lump all games with the name Tower together as an actual genre whose games borrow from each other. Unfortunately sharing a name or setting does not a genre make. The games Pincus mentions couldn't be more different.”
He continued:
“If you take a quick look before "pulling the lens back" as Pincus suggests, you'll find an innumerable number of details in the game that were painstakingly crafted to be identical to Tiny Tower. These are core gameplay mechanics and rules, not similar settings or themes that games in the same genre might share.”
Pincus also took time to address allegations by yet another developer, Buffalo Studios, that the company had ripped off their design for Bingo Blitz to make the upcoming Zynga Bingo. Pincus wrote a missive similar to the original NimbleBit post, complete with picture-by-picture comparisons of how Buffalo actually ripped off Poker Blitz, an earlier Zynga title.
The whole thing is devolving into a running joke where one company says the other copied, and the accused company goes farther back in the books to claim the same about the accuser. One thing’s for sure, Zynga obviously doesn’t feel like what it is doing is wrong.
What do you think? Where is the line between being inspired by someone’s work, and copying it?
Also, you should absolutely read the full article with both responses at GamesBeat.
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"they just stated that zynga had ripped off key elements design and interface from their game"
Since they were NOT the first to ever make one of these games then who's to say Zynga didn't rip it all off from the same people NimbleBit ripped it off from?
You have to first remember that NimbleBit ripped their game off from someone else.
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"Why are there 5 different business types like Tiny Tower? Why do 5 people fit in an apartment instead of 4 or 6? Why are there VIP elevator riders that perform the same functions as Tiny Tower? Why do businesses employ exactly 3 workers and produce exactly 3 products that are stocked in exactly the same way as Tiny Tower. Even the tutorials at the beginning of the game follow the exact same steps."
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Why do all Ford cars have 4 wheels just like Chevy? Why do all Ford cars have 1 steering wheel just like Chevy? Why do all Sony amplifiers have an UP and a DOWN volume control just like Denon? Why do the Old Republic keyboard commands mimic WoW EXACTLY?
Who friggen cares?
Having exact figures doesn't make the game fun or not fun. It takes a game in it's entirety to accomplish that. Regardless of those specifics Zynga still created an entire game form the ground up.
Unless their next grip will be that they stole their source code and simply changed the graphics?
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Zynga fail.
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