What do you think about clones?

I was just browsing around on Google play and AMAZED by how many clones in the shop.

Here's just one example:

Unblock

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=unblock&c=apps

2048

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=2048&c=apps

I think to myself. Why on earth would you make a complete rip-off of something that already exists?

I can get that you have a some favorite game that inspires you, and that you have some idea to make something new and innovative based on the mechanics of a game that currently exists. Like similar, but with a twist, or something new to make it even better?

But I don't get ....

Most of them are just reskins. I can understand that people download them, because they're not educated enough to tell the original from the copy. Why are play stores even allowing this? Since most clones are even crappier and buggier than the original, It's flooding the marketplace with cheap crappy rip-offs.

Why would you even bother to create something exactly identical, but with a reskin?

Unless....

You have a favorite game like "unblock" but you can't find this on another marketplace, so you want to provide this popular game to the crowd because no-one else is doing it on that platform/website/marketplace...

Just wanted to know, what's your opinions on clones?

I'm honestly not to fond of clones. However most are allowed on the playstore as the original owner either didn't bother to do a takedown request once their product has a trademark or don't know that their game has clones.

You also have to take into account that to the user, the first one you play is not a clone.

Clones are source codes sold by the original authors of the game, there are some marketplaces where you can sell your full source code for a decent price.

reminds me of a certain post ...

anyway back to the actual topic, as X3M said in *some cases* clones are sometimes sold sources that were just slightly modified, I am against this practice when no actual meaningfull change is done, a game must have an identity, something unique to it.

basing it's work upon somebody's else work is ok as long as it is permitted (or else C2 would be itself not ok) but the goal is to improve the work done.

we can have tons of exemples of clones even in the older era, with clones of existing NES games sold to this very day, and apart from the graphics they generally are not different or worse sadly.

It is sad to think that two games made with rpg maker won't be the sames compared to two clones made with more opened methods at their core.

just my opinion though.

We also have to take in consideration that sometimes people publish their first game which is a clone basically of a simple game they did by themselves, like sokoban's clones.

We also have flippa which is... weird to me according to this :