iPhone and DS gamers: what do you think of Gameloft?

If you didn't know, Gameloft is a Ubisoft offshoot that makes really, really shameless copies of popular games like God Of War, Uncharted and Halo and releases them for mobile devices.

Do you think they do more good or harm for the iOS game industry? I like many of their games, especially their racing titles, but I feel like I'm destroying an industry by buying from them. I wish they'd do something original so I can have Gameloft quality without Gameloft guilt.

edited 18th Mar '11 8:49:59 PM by Redhead

They're an offshoot? And here I was thinking they're semi-independent and just licensed that way. They made games before there were iPhone and DS games, you know, for OTHER mobile phones? I liked their games then and I like them now. Despite that each of their non-Ubisoft games is a Jimmy Hart Version of something else (the Pirates Of The Caribbean one was fun, though, and the Castlevania one), they do deliver the fun and tickle the tickling centers you would expect to be tickled with the original, if there only were good games made based on it =)

And they did a lot of original stuff in the pre-iphone era. Mostly poker games, though, not all of them PG-rated, If You Know What I Mean.

edited 18th Mar '11 9:46:47 PM by Noelemahc

I'm not sure, to be honest. I know they're closely tied, and that Gameloft was founded after Ubisoft, but that's it.

And yes, they did make mobile games before the iPhone, but until a few years ago they were virtually unknown.

edited 18th Mar '11 11:27:20 PM by Redhead

Loved their old Might And Magic games for my phone. When I have access to D Si ware, I've really got to buy the port of the second one.

Gameloft is everything wrong with the phone games industry. I recall being amazed when I discovered that the Motorola V600, for instance, was based around hardware almost identical to a midrange 68k Mac, yet the interpreted-code BREW environment and hamhanded programming produced games an NES would be ashamed of.

Just put a typical cellphone game side by side with a similar shareware title from the early '90s, the ineptitude on display is shameful.

They rip off other people's ideas, yes, but at least some of their licensed games from Ubisoft are pretty good...outside of Ubisoft license I haven't played that much so can't comment...

Also: which of their game is Gears Of War ripoff?

edited 20th Mar '11 6:38:14 AM by onyhow

I don't think they covered that one yet, ackshully. God Of War, yes, Gears Of War, no.

Their success will not live long. It is true that they're making a lot of money with their copycat games, but sooner or later they will run out of successful ideas to copy. Plus, they're garnering a bad reputation in the scene, so it is unlikely that other companies than Ubisoft will cooperate with them. And let us add the fact that their licenses are worth zilch so the only way they have to earn money is simply making games. No movies, no tie-in material is going to be made of a copycat. Right now, the added value they provide is that they bring console game-like experiences to phones. When the competition gets their act together and starts releasing both original games and the real deal of popular franchises, then they'll evaporate.

This didn't happen for the J 2 ME platform, didn't happen for Symbian until VERY recently and weirdly happened only to a short extent on D Si Ware and iPhone (where quite a lot of companies play Follow the Leader by doing the exact same thing, only in lower quality). They're an inevitably Necessary Evil for non-emulator-savvy folk.

So I checked videos of their game o-o

I find it kinda hilarious how blatant they are at rip offing... Apparently games are good though, or at least few of them have gotten good reviews =/ I'd like to try some of them out, but I'm not sure if I want to encourage rip offing...

Of course their games are huge ripoffs, but with no official ports of the games onto iOS, Gameloft makes good substitutes.

I don't think Gameloft ripping off other franchises is in itself a bad thing. The laziness behind it is though, big time. As others have said Gameloft provides alternative games on platforms where the original isn't available, and the quality of it seems to be acceptable at least for most of them. I'm sure if they invested enough money they could come up with an original franchise. Or maybe they could just mix up different franchises. Who wants Gears Of War meets The Legend Of Zelda? I sure do!
... wait