Zynga New York GM Dan Porter recently made waves when he addressed the issue of Zynga copying games. “Zynga is often accused of copying games, which is mostly true,” he reportedly told an audience at a recent event.
Porter said at the time that what Zynga did was adding features to make those games a service. He now regrets touching on the subject and offered some clarifications online.
“Some of you have seen in the press that I supposedly said Zynga copies games,” he said in a blog. “I was very surprised when the article came out because it was a misrepresentation of what I said at a small talk about the future of gaming and where I talked mostly about wearable gaming and ramification of everyday events.”
“When I spoke to this group, I told them what I truly believe: the debate over copying games is a distraction if you are trying to figure out the future of social games; what matters is the ability to run those games as a service,” he added. “But I also know that is a nuanced point and isn’t quite as sexy a headline. I should know better. Lesson learned. Sometimes it is truly better to say nothing at all.”
Game cloning is a touchy subject for Zynga, which has been the focus of lawsuits in the past, most notably from Electronic Arts over the resemblance of Zynga’s The Ville to The Sims Social. Porter has also personally courted controversy last year, when he wrote of an OMGPOP employee who refused to join Zynga as “the weakest one on the whole team.”
Source: Yahoo.com
