Chillingo's version of Zen Bound pulled from App Store; republished by Secret Exit

EA's purchase of Chillingo certainly stirred up Angry Birds developer Rovio, which was quick to publicly point out that it, not Chillingo, held the rights for the game.

Quietly, Secret Exit, the developer of Zen Bound - another well known Chillingo-published game - has also enforced its rights.

"We had the ability to bring Zen Bound back fully under our control and decided it would be the best option for us," said Secret Exit's Jani Kahrama.

"The average customer tends to associate the publisher brand strongly with the game, leaving the developers into a situation where they are not known for their work. Even when the publisher plays fair and makes certain the developer is mentioned, this message has diminished reach beyond the eyes and ears of the industry.

"Certainly the change in publisher ownership brought an element of uncertainty into the whole matter, and having your game associated with a thirdparty was not what we considered to be in our best interests."

Bait, switch

The original Chillingo version of Zen Bound has been pulled from the App Store, replaced by a new self-published version of the game.

Secret Exit points out it's only this version of the game that will received future updates.

Good news then, it's currently free, in celebration of Zen Bound 2 being released via Steam.