Dear bosses,
There is less than a week left before the open beta of our "Oil Tycoon" mobile game version on January 11th. Thank you again for your patience and support! (Please feel free to read the following, the public beta period of the game will not be delayed!)
Originally, we had arranged a lot of forum activities and small welfare activities in the coming time, thinking that we would happily wait for the arrival of the open beta with everyone. But what makes us very surprised and helpless is that a game that suddenly appeared in recent days with a gameplay that completely "pays tribute" to us really caught us off guard. Some players who misunderstood us even complained about us in the comment area. Plagiarism”.
So I have no choice but to post a slightly heavy post today to explain the reason for this matter to everyone who has always supported us~
【Thing review】
On December 2, 2021, we officially informed everyone of the upcoming public beta in January. We are very grateful and sorry to the players who have been waiting for us, but it is true that the road to introducing overseas games is really difficult. 1-2 months before we dared to announce the open beta time to everyone, there were some force majeure reasons. , and also faced the risk that it might not be able to continue to introduce it, and the project would be terminated... Fortunately, after all difficulties were overcome, the problems were solved.
After that, we continued to prepare for various public tests, and on December 20, 2021, we officially announced to everyone that the global simultaneous public beta will be on January 11, 2022!
And just the day after we announced the public beta time, December 21, 2021, we suddenly discovered that there was a newly launched game. Judging from the promotional pictures and promotional videos, the gameplay was very similar to our "Oil Tycoon". Although this game has only just been released for pre-order, and the number of pre-orders on the TapTap platform is only 20, we realized that there was a high probability that this was a game with bad intentions, so we immediately contacted our legal classmates for assistance.
It is a pity that since the game only had promotional materials at the time and no actual installation package, it is difficult to find conclusive evidence of infringement based on the materials alone (although the overall sense of déjà vu is strong, after all, the style of painting and the background of the era are different, and Infringement requires more substantial evidence), so we can only press the pause button on this matter.
What we didn't expect was that suddenly on December 31st, this game was launched on the iOS platform first, and the Android test started yesterday. It is very unusual for a game that has just been pre-ordered to be launched in such a hurry.
So we can finally conclude that this is a deliberate plagiarism and infringement, and it was maliciously rushed to go online before us.
After trying out the opponent's game, we once again felt extremely indignant, because this game is an almost pixel-level "homage" to "Oil Tycoon" in terms of gameplay, interface, and art material design.
【Evidence of infringement】
Here are some of the infringement evidences we compiled:
I believe that just from looking at the picture, you can already feel that the gameplay of this allegedly infringing game is almost exactly the same as "Oil Tycoon".
But unfortunately, the ones we have listed may only be characterized as gameplay plagiarism. As for gameplay plagiarism, so far, it seems that it is more difficult to win in infringement lawsuits. But regardless of legal judgments and considerations, I believe any player can feel that this is actually plagiarism of the entire content idea, because their "innovative" painting style and themes are also based on this gameplay. Going to do a skin change.
Plagiarism of gameplay does not count as plagiarism. It seems to have gradually become the talisman of some unprincipled and bottom-line infringement and reskin manufacturers, wantonly trampling on the dignity of the original.
Even if we post this article, we may be helping each other. Because the other party can change them one by one based on the infringement certificates we listed, thereby "whitewashing" themselves in the relevant regulations. But we believe that all players are wise, and no amount of whitewashing can whitewash the essence of this game.
It may be really difficult for us to successfully defend our rights, but we are also working with our R&D partners in the Netherlands to make every effort to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests. This is a respect for content creativity, a defense of the dignity of originality, and an apology to all the players who support and wait for us.
Finally, see you there on January 11th! Thank you all!
=========Attached are some core questions and answers about the mobile game version of "Oil Tycoon"========
1. Is the game a buyout system?
Yes, the full buyout discount for the first two weeks after the public beta is 18 yuan (the base version is 12 yuan and the DLC is 6 yuan).
2. Does downloading cost money?
In order to allow more players to try it out, the game provides free download and trial play (you can probably play the first few games for free). If you feel that the game experience is OK, you can decide whether to buy it out.
3. Does the game have ads?
There will be no ads after the buyout. Before the buyout, in addition to the first few games of the free trial, you can watch ads once a day and then experience the single game mode once. You can only watch ads once a day, and there will never be "ads popping up wherever you click", nor will it affect the gaming experience of each game.
4. Are the games interoperable between iOS and Android?
Interoperability, replacement of equipment will not affect
5. Are there other channels for releasing the game?
There are no other channels for now, only official servers (downloads for iOS and TapTap are official). "Oil Tycoon" will be launched exclusively on TapTap.
6. What is the difference between the mobile game version and the Steam version?
The game content is the same but independent of each other, that is, the purchased content is not interoperable. If you have purchased the Steam version, you also need to purchase the mobile version separately. However, it is not recommended to repurchase because the version content is the same.
Products speak for themselves. If you make a good game, no need to say anything, everyone will play your game. If you make a terrible game, no one will play your game, no matter how authorized it is.
If you don’t release the pirated version, it will become genuine.
Do you want money if they are doing it for free?
Stupid, no one is in the comment section. It’s obvious that the game is plagiarized. It doesn’t matter if the game is slow or not. Why don’t you tell me how many years it has been since the game was launched? I wrote so much helplessness in the post. In the end I also want to say that people are slow to release foreign games into the country. This is not as simple as the release of ordinary domestic games. I played the plagiarized game and reskinned it. It is completely plagiarized. No one will really get it for free because of piracy. Just open the genuine version.
I can only say that plagiarism is good. If you don’t plagiarize, you will be afraid that it will not be online in 2099. If you plagiarize, you will be wrong. , if you’re anxious, you’ll know it’s online right away. Let me add that everyone knows about the Thunder game.
I don’t want to know whether I plagiarize or not, it’s just for fun. It’s okay for those noble and noble people not to play, but if you talk about copyright issues, I’m sorry, it’s none of my business. I’m just a player, not a manufacturer or a country??
Some people feel like they are Thunder shareholders by pre-ordering a game. If the game is released late, it is the same as if they were short of millions in dividends.
You deserve to be plagiarized. I started making reservations a few years ago, but there has been no movement. I have finished playing on Steam, but there is still no movement from you. Only now that you have been plagiarized do you know how to move. Haha, you are occupying the manhole and do not shit.
Plagiarism of gameplay is not considered plagiarism. It has become the talisman of manufacturers for unprincipled and bottom-line infringement and reskin, wantonly trampling on the dignity of originality. Plagiarism as defined by law also includes copying and pasting at the program level and art level, but the key core gameplay is not protected. The problem is that it is too difficult to determine plagiarism in terms of gameplay. Whether there is more or less plagiarism is often a subjective judgment. Who should give the right to this subjective judgment? . .
If the gameplay is the same, is that called plagiarism? If the gameplay is the same, it’s called plagiarism, so why are there so many games? After all, it's not all the same routine, it's just a different skin. Are you afraid that no one will play your game if you do better than others?