Arguably the best developer on the scene but lacking in creativity?
It was August 2008. A young man by the name of Brian Kopp had written and compiled what he began marketing on eBay as being “The Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling & Gold Guide". Sales were strong and at $15 a piece it appeared his hard work was paying off. Unfortunately for Brian Blizzard became aware of his entrepreneurial endeavours and took action to shut him down fast. And why would they do this? Blizzard claimed his product was trading off of the substantial goodwill the company had fostered towards the World of Warcraft brand, after all, this games’ success was the result of years of tireless marketing and product development. Blizzard had invested a lot into their property and nobody was going to make money from it besides Blizzard.
If there’s one big takeaway from this real life story it’s that big game companies do not like it when you try to make money off of their products and IP. It is incredibly puzzling then to consider Gameloft’s more recent stable of iPhone games in the greater context of the industry as a whole and not just the walled off garden of the App Store. Nearly every Gameloft title not based on an already existing license is most efficiently described as being “like GameX but on the iPhone”, where GameX represents a big brand console IP. No less than five examples spring immediately to my mind but I will refrain from disclosing them within the body text of this article for a simple reason: I have grown unbearably weary of mentioning them and I suspect you have become weary of reading them. Merely scan your eye across the embedded images. Chances are you already know exactly what I’m talking about.
As I write this I feel more conflicted than I ever have during my time scribing about games. It would be all too easy for this editorial to swing off on a lengthy rant about the shocking lack of originality in these games; a drive down “angry journalist lane” that I expect you are already buckling your seat belts and turning on your headrest mounted DVD players for. Fear not, all is not so black and white, for Gameloft, for all their sins, are producing the finest games on the App Store and doing so with the kind of consistency that any other publisher/developer could only wish for. Whether it’s a first person shooter or a colourful platform romp Gameloft have done more for iPhone gaming than any other company, including Apple.
It is my suspicion that the root of Gameloft’s crimes against creativity stems from a simple source: Profit. Because a picture is worth a thousand words all it takes is a single screenshot of Gameloft’s latest doppelganger and in an instant a message is conveyed to the consumer. The message is clear, that this game has similar themes, aesthetics, content and gameplay as that game you loved and played on your Xbox all through college. You should buy it. Lets face it, you don’t need sites like this one writing lengthy previews about N.O.V.A, you already know everything you need to know about the game shy of the precise number of weapons and levels it will have. And this is fine, it will inevitably be a brilliant game, it will inevitably get 9 out of 10 from most outlets and it will inevitably make a bajillion dollars, give or take 10 bucks.
But is this what we want for iPhone gaming? To become a virtual car boot sale renowned for offering knock off goods at dirt cheap prices? More precisely, is this what we want to see from Gameloft? As a developer and publisher they are clearly immensely talented and phenomenally proficient with the hardware, forever pushing the boundaries of what we thought possible particularly in terms of both graphics and their control innovations. Perhaps this is why it is so hard to believe that there isn’t a single creative person nestled deep within their studio begging to be given a voice. Everything else they do is so damn good. In truth, we want them to continue to make money hand over fist, all of their games are dependable yet guilty pleasures and we secretly look forward to the announcement of each one... But would it be so bad to give that one creative guy a voice every third game or so?
Gameloft produce some of my all time favourite iPhone games, they can make the iPhone hardware sing, I just wish they weren’t always cover versions.
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