Despite the fact that the iPad is seemingly the perfect medium for their frenetic space warfare RTS, Blizzard has so far resisted all calls to release an iOS specific game or port of their famous Starcraft series of games… but hey, why bother when those franchise rip-off artists extraordinaire over at Gameloft will do it for you?
Check out this new trailer for GameLoft’s upcoming iOS RTS, Starfront: Collision, and marvel at the admittedly well-realized shamelessness. It’s pretty much identical to Starcraft II right down to the choice of races, the UI, the graphics, the units… even the font!
Of course, this isn’t the first time GameLoft has ripped-off a popular franchise, changing just enough to avoid a lawsuit. Their N.O.V.A. series of games, for example, are basically Halo knock-offs. The company’s not even apologetic about it, publicly saying that if the owner of a popular franchise isn’t willing to take advantage of the iOS platform and bring their games to the iPhone or iPad themselves, they’ll be happy to release something that’s almost as good and market it to the customers waiting for the real thing.
Like I said, it’s shameless, but for all of my bemusement by GameLoft’s way of doing things, I admire their gumption. They’re honest about what they do, and they release quality games that scratch an identifiable itch in gamers that has heretofore been left unscratched by the holders of the original IP. Spending a few bucks for Starfront sure beats waiting for the mercury to dip enough in hell that Blizzard will finally get on the case.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
5 responses to “GameLoft Will Release StarCraft on iOS Whether Blizzard Likes It Or Not”
It’s actually better than Starcraft II in the fact that it has local lan multiplayer.