Tencent has reportedly copied Ketchapp's hyper-casual mobile game Bottle Flip as part of its recent launch of mini-games in WeChat.

As reported by Quartz, Tencent launched a set mini-games on December 29th 2017, with 17 titles available to play within WeChat. These work much like Facebook's Instant Games service on its Messenger app.

One game, Tiao yi tiao (Jump to jump), has captured the attention of players in particular. Its fame has also drawn claims that it rather closely resembles Ketchapp's game Bottle Flip.

Paying respect to a classic

When asked about the similarities, WeChat's mini-games team stated that "the games and the elements in the games are original". Interestingly, it also noted that "from the beginning, WeChat has paid respect to classic works, innovation, and habits of technology."

While not an outright admission of copying, it does certainly sound like the developers knowingly took some ideas from Bottle Flip from its game.

That said, it's unlikely that anything will come of this. For one, Ketchapp owner Ubisoft is engaged in a partnership with Tencent on China-only game Might & Magic Heroes: Era of Chaos, so isn't likely to start a legal battle over a tiny game on WeChat.

Ketchapp's Bottle Flip launched in November 2016, and the developer has made plenty more games since then. Back in May 2017 it jumped on the fidget spinner craze with its game Finger Spinner, which almost instantly became the number one downloaded game across Europe.