Copy, Paste, Profit

Let’s be honest, this post is about how to make money as fast as possible using apps.

There is a big problem in the games industry, where games are "copied" and released all for the sake of profit. This is mostly rampant in the casual and mobile space. Zynga, one of the major players of this sector of the industry in recent years, is continuously guilty of this. Known to function under the buisness plan of "If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. If you can't buy 'em, clone 'em", Zynga has questionable morals (if any) when it comes to "competing in the mobile space. In a famous letter to Zynga, Tiny Tower developer NimbleBit "congratulated" Zynga on its recent release Dream Heights, a clear clone of Tiny Tower, and was even so kind as to include side by side screen shots of the two games. The letter starts out mentioning that Zynga is a company of 2,789 developers, while NimbleBit has just 3.

I originally thought this was bad. And it still is. Then I ran into a recent post about game "development".

Take a minute to read this article, written by Carter Thomas. And yes, he is completely serious. This was not a parody or satire.

Simply put. Carter Thomas gives you a step by step guide on how to "make games", which involves buying existing code bases, re skinning graphics many times, filling the game with ads, and releasing various versions of the game. Cash money just flows in. I thought it was a joke at first. Once I realized he was serious, I was genuinely disturbed. If you've ever wondered why there are infinite cheap imitations of Doodle Jump, Temple Run, or any other popular mobile game, this is why.

NOTE: DO NOT try to build something from scratch. I say again – this is not about pride or being a revolutionary. This is not about your idea being great. This is about making money.

Now, to be truthful, this is clearly not as much as a moral dilemma as the Zynga situation I have described. However, my question is why do we allow this to happen? How is it that the consumers see these generic, copy-cat apps and games and feel intrigued to download them. This is how markets get ruined, get saturated. This is why there is so much junkware on app stores. It causes an internal conflict with myself because I don't agree with keeping app stores and development platforms locked down. They are better off being open. However, there is a balance that has yet to be struck. Console is too closed. Mobile is too open. Should Apple, Google, Amazon, etc make their stores and platforms better by stopping this practice via banning developers or keeping junkware hard to find? Thoughts?