Recently, I covered news about Sigma Free Fire vanishing from the Play Store due to copyright infringements against Garena Free Fire. While many are up in arms regarding this obvious clone, it’s not the first time this has happened. It also won’t be the last. We even have AI learning how to write and draw like humans, but that’s a discussion for another day.
For now, I want to discuss previous instances where developers copied popular games and got away with it. Also, let’s chat about what the gaming industry would be like if we didn’t have these copycats.
Fortnite vs PUBG, Minecraft, and Apex Legends
Some of you might not know this, but Fortnite has many elements from other games. It basically took the Battle Royale aspect from PUBG and crafting buildings from Minecraft. At a later stage, it included revival vans that appeared in Apex Legends first. These competitors are always stealing ideas from each other, though. After Fortnite introduced web-slinging with the infamous Spider-Man’, it wasn’t long before PUBG and others followed suit.
Genshin Impact and Tower of Fantasy
While Tower of Fantasy isn’t an exact clone of Genshin Impact, there are many elements that are similar. For example, you have The Wanderer as the protagonist, the open world design, and JRPPGanime animations We can easily forgive these copied elements, considering that Genshin Impact was once considered a lone of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Pokemon Go vs The Walking Dead: Our World and Follow JC GO!
When Niantic released Pokemon GO as an AR mobile game, it was sensational. Surer, they can patent the game and characters, but not AR mobile gaming in general. The Walking Dead: Our World was quick to follow in its success, offering similar elements with Walking Dead creatures and cast. Even the Vatican made a religious game called Follow JC GO!
Overwatch and Ace Force
Despite the popularity of Overwatch, Blizzard spent many years debating if it should make a mobile version. It’s only recently that it announced that one is in development. Before then, Tencent’s company, MoreFun, made a mobile game called Ace Force that was very similar in most regards. It’s added new features since then to set it apart from Overwatch. Still, there’s no denying that it is a clone.
DotA vs every MOBA game since then
Who of you were around when DotA and then DotA 2 launched? It wasn’t the first MOBA to enter the scene, but it was the first one to become immensely popular’ it first appeared as a mode in World of Warcraft as Death of the Ancients, but soon became a separate game. Needless to say, games like League of Legends and Mobile Legends that appeared afterwards were simply cloning DotA’s success in their own ways.
Is it really that bad?
As you can see, we received many exciting titles with one developer taking ideas from another. But isn’t that the way the world works lately? One news site sees news trending on another site and then writes an article about it in its own way. In the same way, game developers see which genres and games are increasingly popular and make similar games with new themes and characters. What we get are more games with action and excitement.
