Over the weekend, a clone of the popular Temple Run game appeared on the Android Market, which was downloaded 23 thousand times in a couple of days. In early February, Apple conducted a global “sweep”, removing dozens of applications that were outright clones of popular applications. Google will probably have to take action, too.
Last weekend, the app “Temple Run by Imangi Studios” appeared on the Android Market, in which not only the name of the original game was brazenly used, but also the honest name of the developers with their logo. After the global success on iOS, the company announced the upcoming release of the game on Android, but has not yet managed to release it.
According to Pavel Ryakkonen, Distribution Director of Nevosoft, “it is certainly necessary to fight copyright infringers. The main thing here is that the concept of “clone” should be extremely clear and unambiguous. If the game is made one-on-one, or with minor changes, on the verge of indistinguishability, then this is, of course, a violation. If any developer used basic game mechanics, a similar setting, adding some new features, then this is no longer a clone, but the development of an idea. Which is generally good for the market, because in this way the genre will evolve. Players, in turn, will get a greater variety of games in their favorite genre.”
The clone of Temple Run was not even a clone in the full sense of the word: unlike other applications that somehow just copy mechanics and graphics, it was a “trick”. After the launch, the reverse report began before the start of the game – and that was the end of it. But users who downloaded the program for free managed to view a lot of advertisements, which was the calculation of the attackers.
Perhaps we can only wonder that no one thought of such a move before: given that there is no strict control over applications in the Google store, it is relatively easy to pull off this kind of operation.
It is not yet known whether Google will change its policy or not, but the pirated game has already been removed from the market.