Wed, Jan 12, 2011 | 18:56 GMT
Twisted Pixel accuses Capcom of plagiarizing ‘Splosion Man with its MaXplosion App; won’t pursue legal action
‘Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel has accused Capcom of plagiarism over its MaXplosion App Store offering, but tells Joystiq it won’t pursue legal action against the firm.
Earlier, the developer called out Capcom’s 59p game on Twitter, saying it was a “complete theft” of its hit XBLA title.
“If you’re going to outright steal a game, you should at least understand what makes it fun,” programmer Mike Henry tweeted. “Borrowing is great. Hell, we do it all the time. But that game is a complete theft.”
Twisted Pixel co-founder Michael Wilford later tweeted that the idea for ‘Splosion Man had been pitched to Capcom at one point, a pitch the firm turned down.
“Not sure what to say about MaXplosion,” Wilford tweeted. “Pisses me off. Guess we’re just gonna have to make a better iPhone game than them. Shouldn’t be hard.
“Best part is, we originally pitched [the game] to Capcom and they said no. I’ll always love Capcom [because] of what they brought to my childhood, but WTF have they turned into? First they lose Inafune, now this. [It] just sucks because we’re too small to do anything about it, and I bet Capcom’s counting on that.”
Speaking with Joystiq this afternoon, Wilford told the site it was “definitely not going to pursue legal action”.
“While I think the similarities are pretty nauseating, we’re too small to take on a company like Capcom,” he said. “That, and we owe them one for inventing Mega Man, so we’ll let them slide. I just hope they’re not counting on the fact that indies can’t fight back.
“In general, anything that would take our focus off of making games would be a bad decision, I think. We just need to keep our heads down making the next thing so that Capcom has something to steal next year.
“But I have to say, the amount of support we’ve seen in the last 12 hours on Twitter and over email has been awesome, and I think that’s better than wining [sic] a stupid lawsuit or anything like that. We’ll just have to make our own mobile game and I’m hopeful that Capcom will see that robbing our shit wasn’t worth it in the long run.
“We’ll let you know when we have something on the mobile front to talk about, but now we have added incentive.”
Capcom has yet to comment on the accusation.
Thanks, GI.biz.
15 
Posted in: App Store, Capcom, Casual, Mobile, Xbox Live
Tags: maxplosion, Splosion Man, twisted pixel
15 comments
#1
Psychotext
12/01/11, 2:24 pm
Wow… just looked it up. It really is fairly blatant, except their version looks like shite.
#2
Blerk
12/01/11, 2:26 pm
It’s about as blatant a copy as you can imagine. Apart from them forgetting to make it ‘good’, like Psycho says.
Monstrous behaviour from a major publisher, what were they thinking?
#3
Michael O’Connor
12/01/11, 2:27 pm
Just had a look at videos of this game.
Sad Capcom. Sad.
Twisted Pixel should sue the pants off you for this.
#4
Man_s
12/01/11, 2:28 pm
It is sad indeed. Interested to see how and if Capcom will respond.
#5
StolenGlory
12/01/11, 2:29 pm
Since when did Capcom acquire Gameloft?
#6
Suikoden Fan
12/01/11, 2:30 pm
so capcom is in the age of overpriced and useless dlc, dlc already on the disc, and plagiarism then? this is why they are in my worst 5 publishers, they hardly redeemed themselves with this
its like there trying to push third worst pub from activision. at this rate they make make first.
#7
M2Kx
12/01/11, 2:44 pm
Oh I had to lol pretty hard on this one. It looks like a cheap flashversion of splosion man. I hope it’s free, because it doesn’t lool like it’s going to sell a lot
#8
abnormal alan
12/01/11, 2:46 pm
its 59p and doesn’t even look worth that.
I’d be willing to chip in a couple of quid towards the ‘lets sue the ass off Capcom fund”
#9
onlineatron
12/01/11, 3:46 pm
Twisted Pixel have a serious case here.
MaXplosion looks incredibly like ‘Splosion Man.
I wonder if they’ll have a similar case with Explodemon?
#10
Blerk
12/01/11, 3:50 pm
Someone over at EG was saying that Explodemon actually started development before ‘Splosion Man, so possibly not. Although I have no idea if that’s true or not.
#11
Michael O’Connor
12/01/11, 3:57 pm
@9 Explodemon was actually in development before ‘Splosion Man, and from a design perspective it actually bears little resemblance. MaXplosion on the other hand, barely even tries to hide its transparent “inspiration”.
@10: You can find the whole story about that here, from the mouth of the dev’s themselves.
#12
AHA-Lambda
12/01/11, 7:29 pm
thats shocking stuff from capcom right there, i’m fucking sick of the shit they’ve been pullng this gen but this is a new low D=
Twisted pixel probly aint suing cos they cant afford to and i’m sure capcom betted on that -_-
#13
OrbitMonkey
12/01/11, 8:18 pm
Really admire. Twisted Pixels attitude toward this, show them how to make a good game lads!
As for you capcom, for shame!
#14
Callum
12/01/11, 10:08 pm
Ye gods. It’s my worst nightmare right there. Fortunately, Capcom did a shit job in the copy
I appreciate that the I pad is a unique platform in terms of its input, and obviously less graphically capable than the Xbox, but damn there really is A LOT in common with the two games. And the fact that ‘Splosion Man was PITCHED to Capcom and they said no…and then went on to produce this? Jeesus.
#15
abnormal alan
12/01/11, 11:59 pm
The AppStore reviews have made me furious such great comments as “so original” and “capcom have done it again”
I tried to post a berating review but apparently you can’t unless you have bought the app which I guess makes sense, still though thieving bastards