Wordle and Unpacking copycats put game cloning back under the microscope

The clone wars, it seems, are far from over. The practice of copying the essence of a popular game and repackaging it for financial gain has been around almost as long as videogames, but it’s become a particular problem in recent years on mobile platforms. Not only can this be dispiriting for creators, in the worst cases, clones can overshadow an original game’s performance on storefronts – as in 2018, when Hole.io, a knock-off of Ben Esposito’s Donut County, shot to the top of the iOS App Store before Esposito’s game was even released. Sometimes, developers even find themselves competing with copies of copies, as in the case of Threes, the puzzle game which was copied as 1024, then not one but two games called 2048.

Brier reports an average of three Unpacking clones per week, and has reported a total of 31 so far

At the beginning of 2022, the conversation around cloning was reignited by two highprofile cases. When Wordle became a viral success, it launched many imitators, most offering their own spin on the concept, whether it’s requiring the player to complete multiple puzzles at once or limiting its dictionary to words themed around Taylor Swift. But while these stick to the spirit of Josh Wardle’s free web game, one developer capitalised on its success (and lack of trademark) to create an iOS app of the same name, mimicking its design, with the addition of a $30 subscription.