Last week, Samsung announced the winners of its Smart App Challenge for 2012 a contest designed to provide "support for the development of innovative apps."
In the games category, Asian developer Feelingtouch was awarded the grand prize of $200,000 for its on-rails shooter Gun & Blood.
However, Czech outfit Craneballs has since contacted PocketGamer.biz to say that Gun & Blood isn't so innovative after all. In fact, the studio alleges that Gun & Blood is a "direct rip-off" of Craneballs' own on-rails shooter, Overkill.
Discovery
"Someone here at Craneballs accidentally discovered Gun & Blood on Google Play and we immediately recognised Overkill in it," explained Craneballs marketing manager Daniel Maslovsky.
"At that time we took it as a good joke, to see our game was so good it was worth stealing.
"But you can imagine how that changed now, seeing the title winning a prize for innovative app, instead of being buried somewhere deep and dark."
Craneball released an image comparing the two games
Maslovsky alleges that, not only does the game take inspiration from Overkill, but it's in fact a "direct rip-off."
"They've stolen the whole game design, design of individual menus, everything. In the first version they even copied our in-game text word for word," he continued.
"And this is not even the first time Feelingtouch has done this. Cut the Rope had a similar clone, but it has been taken off."
No need
PocketGamer.biz contacted Feelingtouch for its take on the allegations. The firm's defense focuses on the idea that there's simply no motivation for it to copy Craneballs' title.
"We own 100 percent copyright of Gun & Blood. You can check the link in Google Play for Gun & Blood and Overkill," Feelingtouch said in a statement.
"We have more downloads, better rank and more reviews. Why we need to copy them?"
Feelingtouch's Gun & Blood
Indeed, according to its Google Play store page, Gun & Blood has accrued between 5 and 10 million downloads since its launch in March.
Overkill, meanwhile, has been installed between 1 and 5 million times since it hit the Google Play store in January 2012.
Feelingtouch's statement seems to suggest Craneballs reported its clone claims to Google "months ago", yet the game remains on Google Play, suggesting Google "does not think it's a 'copy'."
Internal discussion
Samsung's position on the issue, however, is unclear.
It's worth noting that, although Samsung billed its Smart App Challenge as a contest for "innovative apps," only one category in the competition was evaluated by a judging panel.
Craneballs' Overkill
The winners of all the other categories including the games category were chosen purely on the basis of their popularity within the Samsung Apps marketplace, with Gun & Blood's download tally meaning it came out on top in the grand prize category.
However, the App Challenge's full terms and conditions state that "all participants warrant that their entries are original and that they are the sole and exclusive owner and rights holder of the submitted entries and all included content".
The competitions conditions also state that "no third parties will make any challenges or claims as to ownership or fraud, and that they have the right to submit the entries in the Challenge and grant all required licenses."
In response to our story, a Samsung representative declared Gun & Blood the "most popular application among users" in the grand prize category.
However, said representative did admit that the company is currently "having a internal discussion regarding to the Overkill and Gun And Blood copyright issues."
News
Related Articles
Interview
Apr 9th, 2024
Saga CEO Rebecca Liao on the launch of publishing division and mass market web3 games
Top Stories
News
Apr 18th, 2024
Fortis team boosted by top ex-King, PopCap EA, Microsoft and Warner Bros. Games talent
News
Apr 18th, 2024
UK skills crisis prompts call for games industry-led body to tackle key challenges
News
Apr 18th, 2024
AI joins the team at King: "Our challenge is to create the right amount of challenge"
News
Apr 17th, 2024
Monopoly GO! celebrates its first birthday and shares its behind-the-scenes story
Feature
Apr 15th, 2024
46 top mobile games in soft launch: CSR 3, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, Candy Crush Blast, and more
Feature
Apr 15th, 2024
Hot Five: XCOM Legends’ rumoured shutdown, Squad Busters verges on soft launch, and Royal Match reaches $3 billion
Events
HIT Games Conference Istanbul 2024 | Apr 18th | |
Game Job Fair – Spring Edition 2024 | Nordic | Apr 18th |
Arts DAO Fest 2.0 | Middle East | Apr 20th |
App Promotion Summit London | Europe | Apr 25th |
Esports Future Summit | Middle East | Apr 27th |
Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 | Middle East | May 1st |
The MENA Games Industry Awards 2024 | Middle East | May 2nd |
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th |