Last week we brought you news that one indie developer recently accused Candy Crush creators of blatantly ripping off his title. Now, King.com responds.
After the accusations began to circulate, a King.com representative released this statement: “King does not clone other peoples’ games. King believes that IP–both our own IP and that of others–is important and should be properly protected. Like any prudent company, we take all appropriate steps to protect our IP in a sensible and fair way. At the same time, we are respectful of the rights and IP of other developer.”
This comes on the heels of statements that Matthew Cox made that alleges their game Pac-Avoid is a direct clone of a game he pitched to the company in 2009 called Scamperghost . After negations fell through, Cox claims that King instructed another company to clone his title to create their version of the game.
King.com went on to say, “”Before we launch any game, we do a thorough search of other games in the marketplace, as well as a review of trademark filings, to ensure that we are not infringing anyone else’s IP. However, for the avoidance of doubt, in this case, this game–which was coded by a third party developer 5 years ago–has been taken down.”
It is unknown at this time if Pac-Avoid will once again be available in the future, or if Cox plans to continue with legal action.