Although Capcom's expressing regret that its new mobile game, MaXplosion, is so similar to Twisted Pixel's Splosion Man, it claims its mobile team didn't get an early peek at the XBLA game before developing its project.
Since MaXplosion hit the app store last week, there's been something of an online outcry from Sploison Man fans -- and from Twisted Pixel itself. The Splosion Man developers took to Twitter recently to complain that MaXplosion's red, cartoony, self-detonating hero and its quirky laboratory setting were a little bit too much like their own work.
Notably, Twisted Pixel claimed it had shown the Xbox Live Arcade title to Capcom for possible publishing and been rejected well before the release of MaXplosion. Capcom admits it saw the title beforehand, but asserts the mobile team had no contact with the group that evaluated it.
"While Twisted Pixel did have discussions with our console game team about publishing Splosion Man on game consoles, Capcom Mobile is a different division of Capcom with separate offices and, as such, had no prior knowledge of any meetings between the console game team and Twisted Pixel," said the publisher in a statement to consumer weblog Joystiq.
"MaXplosion was developed independently by Capcom Mobile," the statement continues. "Nonetheless, we are saddened by this situation and hope to rebuild the trust of our fans and friends in the gaming community."
Brand recognition is an important component for success on Apple's crowded App Store, and recognizable properties tend to sell much better than original or unproven franchises. Many look-alikes that have appeared on the Store include heavy similarities to console properties without crossing the line into actual IP theft.
Gameloft has published Halo-alike N.O.V.A. as well as a title called Hero of Sparta that recalls God of War, for example.
Capcom's statement sounds much less like "We are sad we ripped off their game" and much more like "We are sad you realized we ripped off their game." While the idea that the development team had no idea of the existence of Splosion Man sounds unlikely, at best, Capcom could probably have done a better job coming up with their response to the controversy.
Specifically, to me it sounds like Capcom is saying "We are sad you think we stole their idea in an underhanded fashion. We actually copied it from the release version of Splosion Man."
That was exactly my thoughts Robert. Though Capcom knew that most messageboard members on the popular web forums would not catch that, thinking that it is an actual apology.
Assuming Capcom is telling the truth, the team that developped MaXplosion could still have ripped off the released Splosion Man or the released gameplay preview videos, which are on YouTube since at least 2009. Note that Capcom do not actually deny having ripped off Splosion Man - they only deny that the team developping the game got the idea or material from the team that reviewed Twisted Pixel' proposal.
I think this is what makes their public statement so problematic. If they really claim that the dev team didn't rip it off, they should have said so. By talking around that point, they just call further attention to it. Their PR department isn't doing them any favors by being cryptic about the situation.
The Explodemon team particularly got sad, because they were making their game since 5 years ago, and then suddenly 'Splosion Man got released and all publishers dropped their game thinking it was a clone...
But seemly the Explodemon team and 'Splosion Man team are in good terms. Capcom is just :/
They also didn't say they didn't steal it. They just said they didn't steal it from the publisher presentation. There is still development videos and released game that they can (and likely did) rip off completely without being liars.
In fact they don't even say they didn't take it from an early build. Just that they didn't know that Twisted Pixel met with Capcom console.
I don't think they based it having never seen or heard of S'plosion Man though. The theme, mechanics (3 explosions per jump, darkenning per explosion), art style/maps, enemies, and cannon features are the same. That's a lot of coincidence.
I wouldn't surprise they didn't know. In mobile, the mobile folks are usually left out of the console stuff. They are usually the black sheep and left to tend to their own business. From all the console companies I been in with the Mobile side, this is constantly the case. Mobile makes over 10 to 15 games within the same year, things are so fast pace no one really keeps track on what other divisions are looking at.
That is so infuriating. Even giving Capcom Mobile the benefit of the doubt, how in the world can they justify (morally, obviously not financially) creating a game so "similar" to an existing one. Really, that's just pathetic in my mind. They should spend more time on developing new gameplay mechanics and less time churning out sequels. Yeah, I love many Capcom games, but this is just sad.
Haha denying it always makes things worse! They should have just said, "yeah, we tried to rip this off, sorry" or better yet, not released it at all, or offered Twisted Pixel some kind of deal to bring Splosion Man to mobile devices. See: http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/handlers_prostitute/
That's an impressively ambiguous statement. It's essentially an apology which doesn't actually accept any responsibility of wrongdoing - they're simply stating that Capcom Mobile is entirely responsible everything to do with the MaXplosion game.
To be fair, I believe Capcom is telling the truth: the Mobile team is unlikely to have been given any visibility of 'Splosion Man prior to launch. Indeed, if they had, then Capcom would have probably *not* made the game, as this would have left them wide open to a lawsuit. And there's another thing to consider: given the shorter development lifecycle of mobile games (and reduced test/certification overheads), MX would probably have been released before SM if the team had been given this head start.
However, the name and gameplay of MX does look close enough to SM for Twisted Pixel's game to have been the inspiration/plagarism source (depending on how strongly you feel about it).
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that Capcom will do anything more than they already had - accepting any responsibility would leave them open to being sued for damages. It'd also set a potentially chilling precedent for the games industry as a whole - while I'm sure few people would miss the opportunistic shovelware which follow most popular games, trying to differentiate between parallel development, "fair use" adaptation and outright IP theft is a minefield from which only lawyers tend to emerge, intact and clutching a large wad of money...
There seems to be this mentality that mobile gaming for phones is so low end that out right copying and re branding of non mobile games is some how the norm. Their mobile team clearly thought it would be a great idea to have Splosion Man on the cell phone and so did just that with a name change.
CAPCOM has been doing the Zynga business model for YEARS. They copy their innovation from smaller companies and games and then release their clone with massive marketing dollars. There are very few things their talent has created, most of their stuff is ripped from others, anything from Street Fighter to Resident Evil.
CAPCOM is an evil company. They are racist (Original Balrog and Dhalsim endings, changing the original Felicia Alex Jimenes created, etc) and are just plain crooks (getting caught in a accounting tax scam).
I haven't played RE5, but if the zombies in Africa are not doing anything the other zombies have done, I say it's just PC BS, however, if they are doing something else non-zombie like (and running or using weapons doesn't count! There can be more cognitive zombies) and are doing things to support a negative stereotype, then yes.
I think the developers/producers are responsible for researching their game to see if it has been produced by anyone already. Normally I'd think that would be something that a company would want to do to avoid being sued in the first place. They are probably "sad" that they didn't do the leg work to figure out that they were producing a clone that will probably have lower sales than expected.
The Explodemon team particularly got sad, because they were making their game since 5 years ago, and then suddenly 'Splosion Man got released and all publishers dropped their game thinking it was a clone...
But seemly the Explodemon team and 'Splosion Man team are in good terms. Capcom is just :/
They also didn't say they didn't steal it. They just said they didn't steal it from the publisher presentation. There is still development videos and released game that they can (and likely did) rip off completely without being liars.
In fact they don't even say they didn't take it from an early build. Just that they didn't know that Twisted Pixel met with Capcom console.
I don't think they based it having never seen or heard of S'plosion Man though. The theme, mechanics (3 explosions per jump, darkenning per explosion), art style/maps, enemies, and cannon features are the same. That's a lot of coincidence.
You honestly think this was all coincidence?
http://www.appannie.com/maxplosion/ranking/history/
"We're sorry and saddened by the situation, but hey look, controversy is profitable!"
It's such a serious problem now, that it's almost better not to even acknowledge the iClone, in hopes that it falls in to obscurity.
To be fair, I believe Capcom is telling the truth: the Mobile team is unlikely to have been given any visibility of 'Splosion Man prior to launch. Indeed, if they had, then Capcom would have probably *not* made the game, as this would have left them wide open to a lawsuit. And there's another thing to consider: given the shorter development lifecycle of mobile games (and reduced test/certification overheads), MX would probably have been released before SM if the team had been given this head start.
However, the name and gameplay of MX does look close enough to SM for Twisted Pixel's game to have been the inspiration/plagarism source (depending on how strongly you feel about it).
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that Capcom will do anything more than they already had - accepting any responsibility would leave them open to being sued for damages. It'd also set a potentially chilling precedent for the games industry as a whole - while I'm sure few people would miss the opportunistic shovelware which follow most popular games, trying to differentiate between parallel development, "fair use" adaptation and outright IP theft is a minefield from which only lawyers tend to emerge, intact and clutching a large wad of money...
CAPCOM is an evil company. They are racist (Original Balrog and Dhalsim endings, changing the original Felicia Alex Jimenes created, etc) and are just plain crooks (getting caught in a accounting tax scam).
Yeah, fuck CAPCOM...
But I want Marvel vs Capcom 3 too badly. And Street Fighter :).
Do agree on the other charges though. RE5 was pretty racist too...but I still think people overreacted to it.