Last week, two independent mobile developers made headlines when they accused social gaming powerhouse Zygna of plagiarism. Now, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has defended the company's practices, likening them to Google or Apple.
In an internal memo acquired by VentureBeat, Pincus explains that Zynga's approach is not to plagiarize other successful games, but to iterate on existing "genres" that the company feels it can evolve.
"Google didn’t create the first search engine," Pincus begins. "Apple didn’t create the first mp3 player or tablet. And, Facebook didn’t create the first social network. But these companies have evolved products and categories in revolutionary ways. They are all internet treasures because they all have specific and broad missions to change the world.
"We don’t need to be first to market. We need to be the best in market. There are genres that we’re going to enter because we know our players are interested in them and because we want and need to be where players are. We evolve genres by making games free, social, accessible and highest quality."
Pincus goes to state that one of the games Zygna is alleged to have plagiarized, NimbleBit's Tiny Tower, also drew inspiration from long line of games with a similar theme.
"With regard to Dream Heights and the tower genre, it’s important to note that this category has existed since 1994 with games like Sim Tower and was more recently popularized in China with Tower of Babel in 2009 which achieved 15 million DAUs. On iOS there has been Yoot Tower, Tower Up, Tower Town, Tower Blocks and Tiny Tower. Just as our games, mechanics and social innovations have inspired and accelerated the game industry, its 30 year body of work has inspired us too."
The chief point of Pincus' argument seems to be that Zynga does, in fact, incorporate ideas and design concepts from existing games, but they do so to improve upon what they see and push the industry forward, something that all game developers do constantly.
NimbleBit's Ian Marsh, one of the accusers in last week's scandal, isn't buying it. Marsh issued a response to TouchArcade, refuting Pincus claim that the two games merely share the same genre.
"It is a smart idea for Mark Pincus and Zynga to try and lump all games with the name Tower together as an actual genre whose games borrow from each other. Unfortunately sharing a name or setting does not a genre make. The games Pincus mentions couldn't be more different. Sim Tower is a true 'sim' with macroscopic management and fine tuning of a buildings facilities. Tower Bloxx is a timing based high score game."
Marsh went on to claim that what Zynga did with Dream Heights went far beyond mere inspiration and iteration. In his eyes, the company lifted several important gameplay mechanics directly from Tiny Tower, right down to the smallest details.
"Why are there 5 different business types like Tiny Tower? Why do 5 people fit in an apartment instead of 4 or 6? Why are there VIP elevator riders that perform the same functions as Tiny Tower? Why do businesses employ exactly 3 workers and produce exactly 3 products that are stocked in exactly the same way as Tiny Tower. Even the tutorials at the beginning of the game follow the exact same steps."
