Anyway, horrible company culture; I don't think they can reasonably expect great success from behaving in this manner.
I'm not particularly fond of micro-transactions, I cannot stand the way intellectual property is handled in this country (US), and I dislike rip-off artists such as Zynga/King.
However, all King is doing here is playing ball with current IP legislation, protecting whatever trademarks they can. There's hundreds of games that are exactly the same in every category of gaming, just because King has the capability to create a high-quality successful series of mobile games (which are based off of extremely common gaming concepts) does not mean they are horrible people.
People get up in arms when these large corporations sue eachother over intellectual property. Why does the HN community have this double standard whenever a "little guy" can be made out to have been harmed? Just because you're the first person to think of a popular idea doesn't mean you own it forever.
Patent/Trademark/Copyright legislation is very clearly all bunk in the age of the internet. Get mad at the stupid laws, not at the people taking advantage of them.
Also king is currently involved in a banner saga "saga", suing developers of a game of a completely different genre because they used the word saga in their title. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/22/king-are-trying-t...
Not exactly. Some of the trademark threats they're making are the kind that would probably go nowhere if they were against corporations who could afford to defend themselves. Suing every game with "Candy" in the title is at least approaching the same respectability ballpark as patent trolling.
In other words, don't get mad at the guys that are as troll as the laws allows them to, be mad to some abstract entity that will deflect common sense so we all can ignore you (and all those who care) and keep playing business as usual.
But this story isn't about the fact they copied the idea at all. It's about the fact that they done it as a petulant response to a business deal that fell through. As for "just because you're the first person to think of a popular idea doesn't mean you own it forever" I see where you're coming from ethically but I don't agree. Love them or loathe them, patents are here to stay and although the rules do need cleaned up, they're not fundamentally wrong. You do deserve -some- protection.
Indignant rage is plentiful enough for both. Bash (metaphorically) the hell out of any and all entities you can find who make everything awful.
Zinga made a lot of money for its owners and investors before imploding.
But most likely they will get away with it, as usual.
A developer should listen to his common sense, not his wallet. The money might be right, but they shouldn't take the job if the risk is too high.
Its future is not bright, but it could still pull something magical out of its hat.