First, I purchased Threes only after becoming aware of it because of 2048. I bet there are hundreds of people who can claim the same thing.
Second, if you've spent any time playing both, the term 'clone' does both games a dis-service... its like calling Checkers a 'clone' of Chess because they are both played on the ame type of gameboard. The gameplay between the two games is completely different, and I find I think about each one differently. 2048 (and my favorite variant the hexagon-based 16384) are 'fast twitch' games. Threes is a slow thinker with more strategy. let run down some differences:
- in 2048, the numbers slide all the way in the direction you move. in Threes they only move one space.
- in 2048, a number '2' (or occasionally a number '4') appears in a random position on the board. With Threes, the piece always appears in one of the positions that opens up with your 'slide'.
- in Threes, you get to know (roughly) what piece is coming next, and have an active choice in where it appears... in 2048, you don't.
All of these might seem like subtle changes, but they make a dramatic difference in the mental exercise of the gameplay.
To call these clones makes as much sense to me as calling them all clones of the classic '15-puzzle'.