Who among us can say with any honesty that they haven’t ever been addicted to a Zynga app? Whether you are a Facebook gamer or have them loaded on your iOS or Android device, chances are good you’ve logged more than a few hours with at least one title. Heck, Zynga even makes apps for Google+, Yahoo and MySpace. How does the saying go? It’s hard to throw a rock, and not hit a Zynga game?
Nonetheless, it seems some people are of the opinion that Zynga’s success may be derived more from copying than creating. In fact, Nimblebit took aim at them by mocking their new Dream Heights app (given that it looks remarkably like their successful Tiny Towers app).
And really, why wouldn’t Zynga want to copy Tiny Towers? With over 1 million iOS gamers playing the popular app each day, Zynga is bound to want a piece of that action. Of course, the eyebrow raising piece of this pie is the fact that Zynga recently (and unsuccessfully) tried to acquire Nimblebit. So if you can’t buy them, copy them?
David Marsh, the co-founder (with his twin brother) of Nimblebit had some humor to add to the situation when he pointed out that “Even when you refuse to go work for Zynga, sometimes you end up doing work for Zynga anywa.” Zing(a)!
Fortunately Tiny Towers enjoys an already addicted and engaged user base, so it is hard to tell yet how this new app may affect their bottom line. Zynga certainly has a larger audience, though if they continue to do things that the public perceive as underhanded and entirely uncool that may start to dwindle.
Do you play Tiny Towers? Will you be giving the new Zynga app a try? Did your opinion of Zynga change with this announcement? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think about these copycat allegations.