![FC-Twin-Console-Set-H](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/FC-Twin-Console-Set-H.jpg)
A video game clone is either a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
or a
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
very similar to, or heavily inspired by, a previous popular game or console. Clones are typically made to take financial advantage of the popularity of the cloned game or system, but clones may also result from earnest attempts to create
homages or expand on
game mechanics
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shap ...
from the original game. An additional motivation unique to the medium of games as software with limited
compatibility, is the desire to
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
a simulacrum of a game to
platforms that the original is unavailable for or unsatisfactorily implemented on.
The legality of video game clones is governed by
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
and
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
law. In the 1970s,
Magnavox
Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics company that since 1974 has been a subsidiary of the Dutch electronics corporation Philips.
The predecessor to Magnavox was founded in 1911 by Edwin Pridham and ...
controlled several
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s to the hardware for ''
Pong
''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcor ...
'', and pursued
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
against
unlicensed ''Pong'' clones that led to court rulings in their favor, as well as
legal settlements for compensation. As game production shifted to software on discs and cartridges,
Atari sued Philips under copyright law, allowing them to shut down several
clones of Pac-Man. By the end of the 1980s, courts had ruled in favor of a few alleged clones, and the high costs of a lawsuit meant that most disputes with alleged clones were ignored or settled through to the mid-2000s. In 2012, courts ruled against alleged clones in both ''
Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc.
''Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc.'', 863 F.Supp.2d 394 (D.N.J. 2012), was a 2012 American legal case related to copyright of video games, confirming that a game's look and feel can be protected under copyright law. Tetris Holding is ...
'' and ''
Spry Fox, LLC v. Lolapps, Inc.
''Spry Fox, LLC v. Lolapps, Inc.'', No. 2:12-cv-00147 (W.D. Wash., 2012), was a court case between two video game developers, where Spry Fox alleged that the game ''Yeti Town'', developed by 6waves Lolapps, Copyright infringement, infringed on ...
,'' due to explicit similarities between the games' expressive elements.
Legal scholars agree that these cases establish that general game ideas, game mechanics, and
stock scenes cannot be protected by copyright – only the unique expression of those ideas. However, the high cost of a lawsuit combined with the fact-specific nature of each dispute has made it difficult to predict which game developers can protect their games'
look and feel
In software design, the look and feel of a graphical user interface comprises aspects of its design, including elements such as colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces (the "look"), as well as the behavior of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes ...
from clones. Other methods like patents, trademarks, and industry regulation have played a role in shaping the prevalence of clones.
Overview
Cloning a game in digital marketplaces is common. It is hard to prevent and easy to compete with existing games. Developers can copyright the graphics, title, story, and characters, but have more difficulty protecting software design and game mechanics. A
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
for the mechanics is possible but expensive and time-consuming.
Popular game concepts often lead to that concept becoming incorporated or expanded upon by other developers. In other cases, games may be developed with clear influence from one or more earlier games. Such derivations are not always considered clones though the term may be used to make a comparison between games. As copyright law does not protect
game mechanics
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shap ...
, the reuse of such ideas is generally considered acceptable. For example, ''
Grand Theft Auto III
''Grand Theft Auto III'' is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 1999's ''Grand Theft Auto 2'', and the fifth instalment o ...
'' spurred a number of games that have been called
GTA clones
A ''Grand Theft Auto'' clone (often shortened to ''GTA'' clone) is a subgenre of open world action-adventure video games, characterized by their likeness to the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series in either gameplay, or overall design. In these types ...
but which are not direct copies of assets or mechanical ideas.
In these cases, games that are "clones" of another are generally not implied to have committed any intellectual property infractions, and otherwise considered legally acceptable practices, although calling such games clones is generally considered derogatory.
True video game clones occur when competitors, on seeing the success of a video game title, attempt to compete by creating a near-copy of the existing game with similar assets and gameplay with little additional innovation; developer
Jenova Chen
Xinghan Chen (; born October 8, 1981), known professionally as Jenova Chen, is a Chinese video game designer. He is the designer of the award-winning games ''Cloud'', ''Flow'', ''Flower'', and '' Journey'', and is co-founder of Thatgamecompany.
...
compared the nature of these clones similar to
plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
in which there is little attempt to distinguish the new work from the original. Video game clones are seen by those developing them as low risk; knowing that a game or genre is popular, developing a clone of that game would appear to be a safe and quick investment, in contrast with developing a new title with unknown sales potential. Further, cloning of games from smaller developers, particularly
indie developers
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...
, is more frequent as these small teams lack the financial resources to pursue legal recourse. Instead, these teams often appeal to social influence to try to have the cloner take corrective actions.
History
Hardware cloning (1970s–2000s)
Cloning of video games came early in the
arcade video game
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arca ...
industry shortly after the release of ''
Pong
''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcor ...
'' by
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
in 1972. Its success led to numerous companies buying a copy of the arcade machine to try to make their own versions. Atari's
Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consume ...
called these vendors "jackals", but took no legal action and instead focused on making new games to try to outpace them.
Bushnell also maintained contractual agreements with
Bally Manufacturing
Bally Manufacturing, later renamed Bally Entertainment, was an American company that began as a pinball and slot machine manufacturer, and later expanded into casinos, video games, health clubs, and theme parks. It was acquired by Hilton Hotel ...
and
Midway Manufacturing
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included '' Mortal Kombat'', '' Rampage'', ''Spy Hunter'' ...
; in the case of Midway, Atari providing Midway with a licensed ''Pong'' design that Midway released as ''Winner''.
One of those companies that had copied ''Pong'' was Allied Leisure, which had released its ''Paddle Battle'' arcade game in early 1973. When the market shifted from the two-player to four-player table tennis versions in mid-1973, Allied Leisure produced two new arcade games, ''Tennis Tourney'' and ''Ric-o-chet'', both which Midway stated caused demand for the two-player ''Winner'' to drop dramatically. To stay competitive, Midway acquired one of Allied's games to compare the printed circuit board to that from ''Winner'' as to determine what was the new components for making it a four-player game, and added that to ''Winner'' board, and released as ''Winner IV''. Allied Leisure filed suit against Midway claiming copyright infringement of using its printed circuit board design in making ''Winner IV'' and unfair competition, but the judge failed to agree to a preliminary injunction, ruling that while a drawing of the printed circuit board may have copyright protection, the physical board itself would not and instead would be covered by patents, which were not involved in this case. The case was settled out of court in 1974 for undisclosed terms, believed due to factors relating to a short downturn in the market, as David Braun, the CEO of Allied Leisure had said in 1974 that "th
video game is yesterday's newspaper." The settlement was also likely due to pressure from the patent issues that had arisen around the home versions of ''Pong'' in the
first generation of consoles that were occurring simultaneously.
The base ideas of a home video game console were developed by
Ralph H. Baer
Ralph Henry Baer (born Rudolf Heinrich Baer; March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-American inventor, game developer, and engineer.
Baer's family fled Germany just before World War II and Baer served the American war effort, gain ...
while working at
Sanders Associates
Sanders Associates was a defense contractor in Nashua, New Hampshire, United States, from 1951 until it was sold in 1986. It is now part of BAE Systems Electronics & Integrated Solutions, a subsidiary of BAE Systems. It concentrated on developi ...
, where in 1966 he began work on what ultimately became his "Brown Box" prototype. After securing approval of a proposal for his idea from his superiors, Baer worked with Sanders engineers Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch to execute its design while keeping it within a low cost target. By 1967, the optimized design was ready to be shopped to other manufacturers as Sanders was not in that market area.
To protect the idea, Sanders applied for and received three patents in Baer's, Harrison's, and Rusch's names, covering their "television gaming apparatus"; this included the 1974 reissued U.S. Patent RE28,507 for a "television gaming apparatus", U.S. Patent 3,659,285 for a "television gaming apparatus and method", and U.S. Patent 3,728,480 for a "television gaming and training apparatus". Sanders eventually licensed the technology and the patents to
Magnavox
Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics company that since 1974 has been a subsidiary of the Dutch electronics corporation Philips.
The predecessor to Magnavox was founded in 1911 by Edwin Pridham and ...
, which used it to make the
Magnavox Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September ...
, released in 1972. In 1974, Magnavox sued several companies on patent infringement for creating and distributing table-tennis arcade games including Atari and Midway. Atari settled in 1976 and agreed to pay Magnavox for a perpetual license to the three patents and other technology sharing agreements, allowing them to continue to release their home version of ''Pong''. This case was ultimately decided in Magnavox's favor against the remaining defendants in early 1977.
However, just as with the arcade version, the home version of ''Pong'' drew a number of third-party hardware manufacturers to make ''Pong'' clones on the market, to a point where it was estimated that Atari's ''Pong'' console represented only about a third of sales of home ''Pong'' consoles.
Magnavox continued to pursue action against these ''Pong'' clones using the three patents, estimated to have won over in damages from suits and settlements through the lifetime of the patents.
However, threats of lawsuits did not prevent more clones of the home console systems from being built, as these dedicated consoles were relatively risk free and easy to manufacture. This led to a flooded dedicated-game console market, and creating the industry's first market crash in 1977.
File:TeleGames-Atari-Pong.png, The original Atari ''Pong'' home console, labeled with Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
' "Tele-games" brand
File:Турнир-Game-Console.jpg, The Russian "Турнир" ("Tournament") ''Pong'' clone
File:Magnavox-Odyssey-Console-Set.jpg, The Magnavox Odyssey
File:Inter Electrónica S. A. - Overkal.jpg, The Overkal, made by Inter Electrónica S.A. in 1974, a clone of the Magnavox Odyssey for the Spanish market
Eventually, home consoles switched from built-in games to programmable
microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
-based systems that operated from software stored in
game cartridges
A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electro ...
within the
second generation, making it more difficult to clone at the hardware level. However, off-brand manufacturers attempted to make bootleg copies of these consoles that has a similar form as the known console, but typically could only play built in games frequently on a
liquid-crystal display
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display
A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipmen ...
(LCD). Other bootleg consoles would take the workings of older systems and repackage them in a newer housing that appears like the known consoles capable of playing the games from the original system. The latter was particularly true of consoles that attempted to clone the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
(known as the Famicom system in Japan), which was not available in some countries in the Eastern European and Chinese regions, leading manufacturers within those nations to make
numerous bootleg versions, knowing that it would be near-impossible for Nintendo to seek legal action against them.
File:Nintendo-DS-Fat-Blue.jpg, The Nintendo DS
File:Neo Double Games.JPG, Neo Double Games, mimicking the design of the DS, but games are played on a segmented LCD screen
File:Nintendo-Super-Famicom-Set-FL.jpg, The Nintendo Super Famicom console
File:Pegasus_console%2Bpad%2Bgame.jpg, The Pegasus
Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...
, sold only in Eastern European states, was a Famicom clone though styled after the Super Famicom system
Closed consoles were not the only cloned systems. The
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as t ...
had been released in the United Kingdom in 1982 and its low cost compared to other home computers helped give birth to the video game sector in the UK as well as Western Europe. The system could not be imported into the
Eastern bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
countries, but enterprising companies found ways to clone the ZX Spectrum hardware at even lower cost. With teenagers and young adults able to afford these hardware clones, they too were able to begin developing their own games and helped to launch the video game industry within these countries.
Early copyright protection (1980s)
While hardware itself became difficult to clone, the software of games were subsequently used in unlicensed copies for other systems. Cloning of
arcade video game
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arca ...
s was popular during the arcade's "
golden age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...
" in the early 1980s. Arcade games, prior to mass production, were made in limited numbers for field testing in public spaces; once news got out that a new arcade game from industry leaders like Atari was out in the open, third-party competitors would be able to scope the game and rush to make a clone of the game, either as a new arcade game or for home consoles; an occurrence which happened with ''
Missile Command
''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game '' Temp ...
'' in 1980. This ultimately diluted the market for new arcade games.
An early legal question was whether video games were even eligible for intellectual property protection, as both industry and legal experts were unclear on whether copyright law applied.
One such game was ''
Breakout'', which inspired many games, including ''
Arkanoid
is a 1986 block breaker arcade game developed and published by Taito. In North America, it was published by Romstar. Controlling a paddle-like craft known as the Vaus, the player is tasked with clearing a formation of colorful blocks by deflect ...
'', which itself inspired many other clones. When Atari decided to register its Copyright in ''Breakout'',
Register of Copyrights
The Register of Copyrights is the director of the United States Copyright Office within the Library of Congress, as provided by . The Office has been headed by a Register since 1897. The Register is appointed by, and responsible to, the Libraria ...
Ralph Oman
Ralph Oman (born 1940 in Huntington, New York) is an American lawyer and former Register of Copyrights. He is currently the Pravel, Hewitt, Kimball and Kreiger Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent Law at The George Washingto ...
refused to register the work because it "did not contain at least a minimum amount of original pictorial or graphic authorship, or authorship in sounds".
Atari challenged Oman's decision not to award the game copyright protection, and courts sided with Atari that even simple video games could become copyrightable works, as they were both
fixed
Fixed may refer to:
* ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails
* ''Fixed'', an upcoming 2D adult animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
* Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System
* ...
and original expression.
Midway sued Artic for making ''Puckman,'' an alleged clone of ''Pac-Man,'' with Artic responding that video games were not "fixed in any tangible medium of expression" and thus ineligible for copyright. Courts sided with Midway that aspects of an arcade game were copyrightable, even though the images that appeared on the screen were transient.
Stern Electronics, Inc. v. Kaufman
''Stern Electronics Inc. v. Kaufman'', 669 F.2d 852 (2d Cir. 1982),Stern Electronics, Inc. v. Kaufman', 669 F.2d 852 (2nd Cir. 1982) is a legal case in which the United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit held that Omni Video Games violat ...
similarly decided that the look and feel of a game was fixed, and thus copyrightable, despite differences in the images between different player playthroughs.
Stern Electronics, Inc. v. Kaufman
', 669 F.2d 852 (2nd Cir. 1982) Thus, it became widely established that video games were eligible for copyright protection, against potentially infringing clones.
The most widely cloned arcade games in the early 1980s included ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...
'' (1978), ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'' (1980) and ''
Donkey Kong
is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...
'' (1981), clones of which were available for various different platforms by 1983; there were more than a hundred ''Space Invaders'' clones,
at least 57
''Pac-Man'' clones, at least 37 ''
Frogger
is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and manufactured by Sega. In North America, it was released by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct a series of frogs to their homes by crossing a busy road and a hazardous rive ...
'' clones, and at least seventeen ''Donkey Kong'' clones by professional and amateur coders for platforms ranging from desktop microcomputers to
graphing calculator
A graphing calculator (also graphics calculator or graphic display calculator) is a handheld computer that is capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing other tasks with variables. Most popular graphing calculat ...
s.
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
estimated a loss of over to ''Donkey Kong'' clones on various different platforms despite attempts at litigation to stop them; the matter was further complicated by the ''
Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
''Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.'' was a 1983 legal case heard by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by Judge Robert W. Sweet. In their complaint, Universal Studios alleged that Nintendo's v ...
'' case where
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
who claimed ownership over
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
attempted to take action against ''Donkey Kong'' and its clones, notably the
Tiger Electronics
Tiger Electronics Ltd. (also known as Tiger and Tiger Toys) was an independent American toy manufacturer best known for its handheld LCD games, the Furby, the Talkboy, Giga Pets, the 2-XL robot, and audio games such as ''Brain Warp'' and the Br ...
handheld electronic game
Handheld electronic games are very small, portable devices for playing interactive electronic games, often miniaturized versions of video games. The controls, display and speakers are all part of a single unit. Rather than a general-purpose ...
''King Kong'', but the court ruled in Nintendo's favor along with ordering Tiger to pay damages to Nintendo.
''
BYTE
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
'' reported in December 1981 that at least eight clones of
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
's
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
''
Asteroids
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
'' existed for personal computers.
The magazine stated in December 1982 that that year "few games broke new ground in either design or format ... If the public really likes an idea, it is milked for all it's worth, and numerous clones of a different color soon crowd the shelves. That is, until the public stops buying or something better comes along. Companies who believe that microcomputer games are the
hula hoop
A hula hoop is a toy hoop that is twirled around the waist, limbs or neck. It can also be wheeled along the ground like a wheel, with careful execution. They have been used by children and adults since at least 500 BC. The modern hula hoop ...
of the 1980s only want to play Quick Profit".
The degree of cloning was so great that in 1981, Atari warned in full-page advertisements "Piracy: This Game is Over", stating that the company "will protect its rights by vigorously enforcing
tscopyrights
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
and by taking appropriate action against unauthorized entities who reproduce or adapt substantial copies of ATARI games", like a home-computer clone.
In ''Atari, Inc. v. Amusement World, Inc.'' (547 F. Supp. 222, 1982),
Atari sued Amusement World claiming that its video game ''Meteors'' violated their copyright on ''
Asteroids
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
''.
The court did find twenty-two similarities between the two games, but ruled against Atari's claims, citing these elements as ''
scènes à faire
A ''scène à faire'' ( French for "scene to be made" or "scene that must be done"; plural: ''scènes à faire'') is a scene in a book or film which is almost obligatory for a book or film in that genre. In the U.S. it also refers to a principle ...
'' for games about shooting at asteroids.
This was based on a principle in copyright law known as the
idea-expression distinction, that copyright does protect the idea for a game only the game's unique expression.
In 1980, Namco released ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'' which became a massive commercial success, leading to the development of
numerous ''Pac-Man'' clones.
Between October 1980 and December 1981, the ''Pac-Man'' game alone generated $150 million in sales.
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
was one of several developers who attempted to create their own maze game, resulting in ''
K.C. Munchkin!'' released in 1981.''
'' Atari sued Philips in
Atari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp., claiming that the game ''
K.C. Munchkin!'' had illegally copied their game ''Pac-Man''.
The court initially refused ''Atari''
's
motion
In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...
to bar the sales of ''Munchkin''. But ''Atari'' succeeded on appeal, with Judge
Harlington Wood applying the
abstraction test to find that ''Munchkin'' had in fact copied the unique expression of ''Pac-Man'', particularly the character
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
.
As a result of Atari's successful motion, ''Philips'' was legally barred from selling ''K.C. Munchkin''.
Courts later barred other clones of Pac-Man, including ''Packri-Monster'' by
Bandai
is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...
, ''Puckman'' by Artic International, and another similar game called ''Mighty Mouth.''
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Siva Vaidhyanathan (born 1966) is a cultural historian and media scholar, and the Robertson professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Vaidhyanathan is a permanent columnist at The Guardian and Slate; he is also a frequent contrib ...
suggests that the ruling had a chilling effect on competition for ''Pac-Man'', despite the court stating that copyright did not control the idea of a
maze-chase game.
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s ...
wrote in 1984 that "Atari bought itself about a million dollars worth of unfavorable publicity by bullying some very nice teen-aged programmers; surely they could have been smoother about it".
Loosening of protection (1988-2012)
The Atari v. Philips decision established that video game clones could be held liable for copying other games, because ''K.C. Munchkin!'' had substantial similarities to ''Pac-Man''.
However, the court also noted that several aspects of the games were standard or common, and thus not protected by copyright.
By the late 1980s, courts began to take a more permissive approach with video game clones, deciding that many elements of creativity cannot be protected, such as
generic
Generic or generics may refer to:
In business
* Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark
* Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...
concepts, functional rules, and
scènes à faire
A ''scène à faire'' ( French for "scene to be made" or "scene that must be done"; plural: ''scènes à faire'') is a scene in a book or film which is almost obligatory for a book or film in that genre. In the U.S. it also refers to a principle ...
.
One such ruling was the 1988 case ''
Data East USA, Inc. v. Epyx, Inc.
''Data East USA, Inc. v. Epyx, Inc.'' 862 F.2d 204, 9 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1322 (9th Cir. 1988) was a court case between two video game manufacturers, where Data East claimed that their copyright in ''Karate Champ'' was infringed by '' World Karate ...
'', where courts ruled that Epyx's game ''
World Karate Championship'' did not infringe Data East's game ''
Karate Champ
''Karate Champ'', known in Japan as , is a 1984 arcade fighting game developed by Technōs Japan (which would later developing 1995 Neo Geo titles '' Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer'' with SNK) and released by Data East. A variety of moves can be per ...
,'' because none of the similarities were protected under copyright.
This was based on the idea that the general gameplay of a martial arts game was an idea that was free for anyone to use, and could not be protected by copyright as unique expression.
In 1991, game developer
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
released ''
Street Fighter II
is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...
''. Its popularity led to an explosion of interest in the
fighting game
A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a video game genre, genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappli ...
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
.
Other companies rushed to capitalize, and
Data East
, also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The Am ...
released their own one-on-one fighting game called
''Fighter's History'' in 1994. As it was later revealed, Data East created design documents that referred to ''Street Fighter II'' several times.
Several people noticed the similarities and raised the issue with Capcom, reaching the president,
Kenzo Tsujimoto
(born December 15, 1940) is a Japanese businessman who founded the video game companies Irem and Capcom. He has also served as president of Computer Software Copyright Association (ACCS) since 1997, and was president of Computer Entertainment S ...
.
Capcom soon sued Data East for copyright infringements, in both America and Japan.
Capcom also sought a preliminary injunction to stop Data East from distributing ''Fighter's History''. Data East used the argument that had previously been used to thwart their 1988 lawsuit against Epyx, that none of the elements that were similar to Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' were protectable under copyright.
The court noted the similarities between several moves and characters, but insisted "that the vast majority of the moves are unprotectable because they are commonplace kicks and punches."
Capcom U.S.A. lost the case on grounds that the copied elements were excluded from copyright protection, as generic scènes à faire. The case was one of several that made it difficult for a copyright holder to win a lawsuit against an alleged clone,
and also allowed game genres to develop based on imitation and iteration.
Many game mechanics from ''Street Fighter II'' became common to the genre, as well as aspects of the fighting game ''
Mortal Kombat
''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...
''.
With the costs of filing a lawsuit being very high compared to the expected outcome, many video game copyright holders became hesitant to sue alleged clones. Most lawsuits about alleged clones were settled between the mid-1990s through to the mid-2000s.
The success of the 1993 game ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's character t ...
'' led to a number of similar 3D adventure games, which were sometimes labeled as "Myst clones". Some
video game genres
A video game genre is an informal classification of a video game based on how it is played rather than visual or narrative elements. This is independent of setting, unlike works of fiction that are expressed through other media, such as films or ...
are founded by archetypal games of which all subsequent similar games are considered derivatives; notably, early
first-person shooters
First-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eye ...
were often called "''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'' clones",
[Turner, Benjamin & Bowen, Kevin]
Bringin' in the DOOM Clones
''GameSpy,'' December 11, 2003, Accessed February 19, 2009 while the success of the open-world formula in ''
Grand Theft Auto
''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...
'' led to the genre of
GTA clones.
The genre of
endless runner
Endless runner or infinite runner is a subgenre of platform game in which the player character runs for an infinite amount of time while avoiding obstacles. The player's objective is to reach a high score by surviving for as long as possible. The ...
s is based on the success and simplicity of the game ''
Canabalt''. Such cloning can also cause a relatively-sudden emergence of a new genre as developers attempt to capitalize on the interest. The
battle royale genre
Battle royal (; also royale) traditionally refers to a fight involving many combatants that is fought until only one fighter remains standing, usually conducted under either boxing or wrestling rules. In recent times, the term has been used in a ...
grew rapidly after the success of ''
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
''PUBG: Battlegrounds'' (previously known as ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'') is a battle royale game developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. The game, which was inspired by the Japanese film '' Battle Royale'' (2000), is based ...
'' and ''
Fortnite Battle Royale
''Fortnite Battle Royale'' is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed and published by Epic Games. It is a companion game to '' Fortnite: Save the World'', a cooperative survival game with construction elements. It was initially re ...
'' across 2017 and 2018, while ''
Dota Auto Chess
''Dota Auto Chess'' is a strategy video game mod for the video game ''Dota 2''. Developed by Drodo Studio and released in January 2019, the game features elements of chess and supports up to eight players. The popularity of the mod, with its hav ...
'' released in January 2019 spawned several commercial games in the
auto battler
An auto battler, also known as auto chess, is a subgenre of strategy video games that typically feature chess-like elements where players place characters on a grid-shaped battlefield during a preparation phase, who then fight the opposing team's ...
genre by mid-2019.
![Freeciv-webgl-3d-screenshot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Freeciv-webgl-3d-screenshot.jpg)
Another type of clone arose from developers in the
modding
''Modding'' is a slang expression derived from the English verb " to modify". The term refers to modification of hardware, software, or anything else, to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specific ...
,
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
, and
indie game
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...
communities, where these developers seek to recreate the mechanics of a popular title through
reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
, sometimes using their own original assets, and releasing the game typically for free and in homage to the original title. This allows the teams and users to expand upon original elements of the commercial game, such as software bugs that were not fixed, improving gameplay concepts, support for different and newer computers or console platforms, or adding new ideas to the base gameplay principles, as well as easing game extensions through user-created mods or add-ons. Some examples of these clones include ''
Freeciv
''Freeciv'' is a single- and multiplayer turn-based strategy game for workstations and personal computers inspired by the proprietary ''Sid Meier's Civilization'' series. It is available for most desktop computer operating systems and available ...
'' based on the
''Civilization'' series, ''
Osu!
''Osu!'' (stylized as ''osu!'') is a free-to-play rhythm game primarily developed, published, and created by Dean "peppy" Herbert. Inspired by iNiS' rhythm game ''Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan'', it was written in C Sharp (programming language), C# ...
'' based on ''
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
or ''Ouendan'', is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in 2005, for release only in Japan. ''Ouendan'' stars a cheer squad rhythmically cheering for various troubled peopl ...
'',
and ''
Frets on Fire
''Frets on Fire'' (''FoF'') is a free, open-source music video game created by Finnish independent video game developer Unreal Voodoo. Players use the keyboard to play along with markers which appear on screen, with the aim to score points, a ...
'' based on ''
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
''. The open source nature of these clones also enable new utilities, such as developing
artificial intelligence agents that have learned and improved their play in ''Freeciv'' which in turn can help advance artificial intelligence research. Such games must be careful not to redistribute the original game's assets or they could face legal issues. ''OpenSC2K'', an open-source recreation of ''
SimCity 2000
''SimCity 2000'' is a city-building simulation video game jointly developed by Will Wright and Fred Haslam of Maxis. It is the successor to '' SimCity Classic'' and was released for Apple Macintosh personal computers in 1993, after which it wa ...
'', was shut down by
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
after it was found that ''OpenSC2K'' used assets from ''SimCity 2000''. Some projects that started as reverse engineered
game engine recreation
Game engine recreation is a type of video game engine remastering process whereby a new game engine is written from scratch as a clone of the original with the ability to load the original game's data files such as music, textures, scripts, shad ...
s, faithful enough to directly use separately acquired assets from the original game by players who own it, may later become game clones by including the original game assets when the rights owners release the game as freeware, as did ''OpenRA'', a ''
Command & Conquer: Red Alert'' clone. It even incorporated code from the original game after Electronic Arts re-licensed it under the
GPL
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...
later, as was the case for many game engines in
ScummVM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine (ScummVM) is a set of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system, it also supports a variety of non-SCUMM games by companies ...
, which subsequently has been used for official re-releases by numerous companies, starting with
Revolution Software
Revolution Software Limited is a British video game developer based in York, founded in 1989 by Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes, and Noirin Carmody.
Company history 1992–1994: ''Lure of the Temptress'' and ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' ...
's
Sold Out
"Selling out", or "sold out" in the past tense, is a common expression for the compromising of a person's integrity, morality, authenticity, or principles by forgoing the long-term benefits of the collective or group in exchange for personal ga ...
label budget release of
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. For cloning of original indie games by other indie developers, while such practices do exist, indie developers tend to rely on an informal
code of honor to shun those who do engage in cloning.
Clones may also be used as commentary or parody of the original game, usually in a manner considered transformative to qualify as
fair use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
. ''
Pyst
''Pyst'' (stylised as ''PYST'') is an adventure computer game released in October 1996. It was created as a parody of the highly successful adventure game ''Myst''. ''Pyst'' was written by Peter Bergman, a co-founder of the Firesign Theatre, a ...
'' is a parody of the adventure game ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's character t ...
'', taking place on seemingly the same island as ''Myst'' but vandalized by numerous groups. ''Hatetris'' became a variant of ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the approp ...
'' where the next tetranomial provided is the worst possible for the current board.
New developments (2012-present)
New concerns related to cloned video games came with the rise of
social network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
and
mobile game
A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
s, typically which were offered as
freemium
Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...
titles to entice new players to play. The rising popularity of these games with casual players led to widespread clones.
Zynga
Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...
was one of the first major developers in social network games, and had long been criticized by the video game industry as cloning popular social and casual games from other developers,
includes those of smaller developers without the resources to fight back in courts (as in the case of ''
Tiny Tower
''Tiny Tower'' is a business simulation video game developed by NimbleBit, released on June 23, 2011 and November 16, 2011 for iOS and Android (operating system), Android devices respectively. The game tasks players with managing a tower filled ...
'' by
NimbleBit
NimbleBit, LLC is an American developer and publisher of iOS and Android (operating system), Android mobile apps. It was co-founded by brothers David and Ian Marsh. , which Zynga has cloned in their game, ''Dream Heights'') or that are willing to settle out of court (as in the case of Zynga's ''
Mafia Wars
''Mafia Wars'' is a defunct freemium Massively multiplayer online game, multiplayer social network game created by Zynga.
In ''Mafia Wars,'' the players assume the roles of gangsters while building their own Criminal organization, Mafia-type org ...
'', which was accused of cloning David Maestri's ''
Mob Wars
''Mob Wars'' is a multiplayer role-playing game hosted on the social networking site Facebook. It allows players to engage in Mafia-style wars with one another and has become one of the most lucrative Facebook applications and the first to net US$ ...
'').
In August 2012,
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
(EA), via its
Maxis
Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts, EA in 1997. Maxi ...
division, put forth a lawsuit against Zynga, claiming that its Facebook game, ''
The Ville'' was a ripoff of EA's own Facebook game, ''
The Sims Social
''The Sims Social'' was a Facebook addition to the ''Sims'' series of video games. It was announced during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 press conference. As with the original ''Sims'' games, ''The Sims Social'' lets the user create th ...
''. The lawsuit challenges that ''The Ville'' not only copies the gameplay mechanics of ''The Sims Social'', but also uses art and visual interface aspects that appear to be inspired by ''The Sims Social''. Pundits have noted that EA, unlike these previous developers, are financially backed to see the case to completion; EA themselves have stated in the lawsuit that "Maxis isn’t the first studio to claim that Zynga copied its creative product. But we are the studio that has the financial and corporate resources to stand up and do something about it." The two companies settled out of court on undisclosed terms in February 2013.
In 2009, Xio Interactive released a mobile game called ''Mino'' that was based on the
gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...
of ''Tetris,'' with the belief that their game did not include any legally-protected elements. The game ''Mino'' featured the same approach of using falling
tetromino
A tetromino is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally (i.e. at the edges and not the corners). Tetrominoes, like dominoes and pentominoes, are a particular type of polyomino. The corresponding polycube, called a tetracu ...
blocks to form complete lines on a playfield and score points.
''Mino'' also added new power-ups and game modes to the basic Tetris gameplay.
While there had been many ''Tetris'' clones over the years, ''Mino'' was eventually downloaded more than six million times, culminating in The Tetris Company filing a lawsuit against Xio Interactive in December 2009.
While the court determined that the idea of a vertically falling block game could not be protected by copyright, they determined that ''Tetris'' did have many unique elements making it eligible for copyright protection, including its twenty-by-ten square game board, the display of randomized junk blocks at the start of the game, the display of a block's "shadow" where it will land, and the display of the next piece to fall. Wolfson also granted protection to the blocks changing in color when they land, and the game board filling up when the game is over.
In weighing these arguments, Wolfson noted that ''Mino'' copied ''Tetris'' much more closely than a game like ''
Dr. Mario
''Dr. Mario'' is a 1990 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom, and Game Boy. It was produced by Gunpei Yokoi and designed by Takahiro Harada. The soundtrack was composed by Hirokazu ...
'', a game that utilized the rules of ''Tetris'' to express a similar idea in a unique and non-infringing way.
Legal and industry experts agreed this signalled that United States courts were becoming more willing to grant broader video games for specific visual arrangements.
Though copyright would not limit the imitation of standard game elements, this decision would have the greatest impact on games that copied exact shapes and colors.
In 2012, ''
Spry Fox, LLC v. Lolapps, Inc.
''Spry Fox, LLC v. Lolapps, Inc.'', No. 2:12-cv-00147 (W.D. Wash., 2012), was a court case between two video game developers, where Spry Fox alleged that the game ''Yeti Town'', developed by 6waves Lolapps, Copyright infringement, infringed on ...
'' was heard in the
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, brought by
Spry Fox
Spry Fox is a video game producing company headquartered in Seattle, United States, that was founded in 2010 by David Edery and Daniel Cook. The company produced the games ''Triple Town'', a freemium strategy puzzle game with city-building ga ...
against developer
Lolapps
Lolapps was a developer and publisher of social games on the Facebook platform. Lolapps was best known for creating Ravenwood Fair with John Romero which had 25 million players worldwide.
In 2011, Lolapps merged with social games publisher 6wav ...
over their game ''Yeti Town'' which Spry Fox claimed was a copyright-infringing clone of ''
Triple Town
''Triple Town'' is a freemium strategy puzzle video game with city-building elements. It is available for social networks and mobile devices and was developed by Seattle-based Spry Fox.
The casual game was originally released for the Amazon Ki ...
''. At the initial hearings, the judge followed similar logic used in the ''Xio'' case to order a preliminary injunction in favor of Spry Fox, as ''Yeti Town'' had the same look-and-feel as ''Triple Town'' when simply viewed side by side. The case was subsequently settled out of court, with Spry Fox gaining ownership of the ''Yeti Town'' property by the end of 2012.
Since these cases in 2012, legal scholars have found that courts have been more scrutinizing of look-and-feel in cases involving video game clones.
Clones of social and mobile games have continued to flourish as the format gained popularity; the low cost, ease and simplicity of the tools needed to develop these made cloning in that sector a significant problem.
For example, ''
Flappy Bird
''Flappy Bird'' is a mobile game developed by the Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen ( vi, Nguyễn Hà Đông), under his game development company .Gears. The game is a side-scroller where the player controls a bird, attemp ...
'' had been cloned dozens of times due to programming code clearinghouses offering templated code to which others could easily add their own art assets.
The creators of ''
Threes!
''Threes'' (stylized as ''Threes!'') is a puzzle video game by Sirvo, an independent development team consisting of game designer Asher Vollmer, illustrator Greg Wohlwend, and composer Jimmy Hinson. The game was released on February 6, 2014, for ...
'' spent 14 months developing the game and tuning its mechanics, but the first clone was released 21 days after ''Threes!'' and the original was quickly overshadowed by ''
2048'', a clone that was developed over a weekend. While ''2048'' had been originally published freely and under an open-source license,
Ketchapp
Ketchapp SARL is a French video game publisher based in Paris, specializing in the mobile games market. Founded in 2014 by brothers Antoine and Michel Morcos, the company first came into the public eye later that year, through its port of the ...
developed an ad-supported version of ''2048'' that charted on the App Store. In the early period of social media games around 2012,
Zynga
Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...
had gained a negative reputation of making copycat clones in that space. However, according to their lead gameplay designer,
Brian Reynolds, they see potential new genres and game ideas that gain popularity, and then strive to add their own innovation and concepts to at, so that "
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
goal is to have the highest-quality thing". Following its sudden rise to popularity at the start of 2022, ''
Wordle
''Wordle'' is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle, and owned and published by The New York Times Company since 2022. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for ...
'' saw a number of clones appear on the App Store in early January 2022, only to be removed in the wake of users criticizing the clone developers.
Another major area of concern for software clones arises within China. From 2000 to 2015, the Chinese government had
numerous restrictions on imports of hardware and software, and access to non-Chinese storefronts. While this allowed gaming on personal computers to flourish within China, the cost of acquiring both hardware and software was too expensive for many, leading to Chinese developers to create low-cost clones of popular Western and Japanese titles for the Chinese market, which persist today.
Foreign companies are faced with difficulties in seeking legal action against the Chinese developers that have created these clones, making cloning a far less risky process.
Thus, it is common for popular games from both Western and Japanese markets to see near-exact clones appear within China, often within weeks of the original game's release. A notable example is a clone of
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...
's ''
Hearthstone
''Hearthstone'' is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthstone'' builds upon the existing lore of the ''Warcraft'' series by u ...
'' called ''Sleeping Dragon: Heroes of the Three Kingdoms'' created by Chinese developer Unico, released within a few months of ''Hearthstone'' beta release. Blizzard was ultimately successful in suing Unico for in damages in 2014. In other cases, clones are made to address elements of the original game that are unsuitable under China's content restriction laws; for example,
Tencent
Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...
, which operated the publishing of ''
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
''PUBG: Battlegrounds'' (previously known as ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'') is a battle royale game developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. The game, which was inspired by the Japanese film '' Battle Royale'' (2000), is based ...
'' in China, was forced to pull the game due to content related to violence and terrorism, and instead replaced it with a clone, ''Game for Peace'', which otherwise reused assets from ''Battlegrounds'' but removed blood and gore.
Legal aspects related to clones
Video game clones are generally difficult to prevent through
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
laws such as
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
,
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s, or
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
s. The game industry has generally been built on the concept of building atop gameplay concepts from other developers to make novel games, but avoiding outright copying element for element as to make a direct clone.
Broadly, video games lack a fixed medium, and fall into the same area as
software copyright Software copyright is the application of copyright in law to machine-readable software. While many of the legal principles and policy debates concerning software copyright have close parallels in other domains of copyright law, there are a number o ...
where underlying
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
as well as art and other assets qualify for copyright, but the gameplay does not. In the United States specifically, video games fall into the
idea-expression distinction, that one cannot copyright the underlying gameplay but can copyright a specific implementation of it. Case law until 2012 has generally favorable to clones, often ruling that clones of a game do not violate copyright since they meet ''
scènes à faire
A ''scène à faire'' ( French for "scene to be made" or "scene that must be done"; plural: ''scènes à faire'') is a scene in a book or film which is almost obligatory for a book or film in that genre. In the U.S. it also refers to a principle ...
'' principle, elements necessary for a specific theme of a game.
However, in two separate U.S. cases in 2012, ''
Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc.
''Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc.'', 863 F.Supp.2d 394 (D.N.J. 2012), was a 2012 American legal case related to copyright of video games, confirming that a game's look and feel can be protected under copyright law. Tetris Holding is ...
'' and ''
Spry Fox, LLC v. Lolapps, Inc.
''Spry Fox, LLC v. Lolapps, Inc.'', No. 2:12-cv-00147 (W.D. Wash., 2012), was a court case between two video game developers, where Spry Fox alleged that the game ''Yeti Town'', developed by 6waves Lolapps, Copyright infringement, infringed on ...
'', courts found using the
Abstraction-Filtration-Comparison test
The Abstraction-Filtration-Comparison test (AFC) is a method of identifying substantial similarity for the purposes of applying copyright law. In particular, the AFC test is used to determine whether non-literal elements of a computer program have ...
that clones that not only copy gameplay without excessive changes but also too much of the original game's
look and feel
In software design, the look and feel of a graphical user interface comprises aspects of its design, including elements such as colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces (the "look"), as well as the behavior of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes ...
were in violation of copyright law. This new approach gave developers a better means to fight against direct clones.
Despite this, there has only been an incremental increase, with the courts applying this legal standard carefully to new cases.
Legal scholars have argued that the high costs of a legal dispute combined with the specific facts of each alleged clone have made these cases difficult to predict, and thus it is still rare that they proceed to trial.
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
compared a history of these rulings both for and against infringement, and described the idea-expression distinction – that copyright law won't protect an idea, only its expression – as "simple to state" but "difficult to apply".
Patents have been used in a limited fashion to protect novel gameplay ideas, such as the navigation system in Sega's ''
Crazy Taxi
''Crazy Taxi'' is a series of racing video games that was developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega. The first game appeared in arcades in 1999 and was very successful, prompting Sega to port the arcade version to their Dreamcast console ...
'' games. Sega sued
Fox Interactive
Fox Interactive was an American video game publisher based in Los Angeles, California. The company published games based on 20th Century Fox properties, yet also published several original titles, such as '' Croc: Legend of the Gobbos''.
History ...
for patent infringement for their use of a similar system in ''
The Simpsons: Road Rage'', a case that was ultimately settled out of court. Trademarks have also been used in a very limited fashion to block other developers from using the same terminology for their games or gameplay.
Industry regulation
More recently, with the popularity of social and mobile game stores like Apple's
App Store
An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...
for iOS system and
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...
for Android-based systems, a large number of likely-infringing clones have begun appearing. While such storefronts typically include a review process before games and apps can be offered on them, these processes do not consider copyright infringement of other titles. Instead, they rely on the developer of the work that has been cloned to initiate a complaint regarding the clone, which may take time for review. The cloned apps often are purposely designed to resemble other popular apps by name or feel, luring away purchasers from the legitimate app, even after complaints have been filed. Apple has released a tool to streamline claims of app clones to a team dedicated to handle these cases, helping to bring the two parties together to try to negotiate prior to action. While Apple, Google, and Microsoft took steps to stem the mass of clones based on ''Swing Copters'' after its release, experts believe it is unlikely that these app stores will institute any type of proactive clone protection outside of clear copyright violations, and these experts stress the matter is better done by the developers and gaming community to assure the original developer is well known, protects their game assets on release, and gets the credit for the original game.
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...
, which operates the
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
digital storefront for games on personal computers, also takes steps to remove games that are clearly copyright-infringing clones of other titles on the service, once notified of the issue.
See also
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Famiclone
A Famiclone is any clone console of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known in Japan as the Family Computer or Famicom. They are electronic hardware devices designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the NES and Fa ...
*
''Grand Theft Auto'' clone
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Homebrew (video games)
Homebrew, when applied to video games, refers to games produced by hobbyists for proprietary video game consoles which are not intended to be user-programmable. The official documentation is often only available to licensed developers, and the ...
*
ROM hacking
ROM hacking is the process of modifying a ROM image, ROM image or ROM file of a video game to alter the game's graphics, dialogue, levels, gameplay, and/or other elements. This is usually done by technically inclined video game fans to improve an ...
*
List of ''Pac-Man'' clones
References
{{VideoGameGenre
Video game controversies
Video game development
Unofficial adaptations