Armed Heroes Online looks awfully familiar
You can’t plagiarize and expect not to get caught, it just doesn’t work this way anymore. You can’t hide on the internet. But somehow, Chinese developer EGLS Ltd. (Electronic Game Labs) thought no one would notice that the assets that appear in this free-to-play game were ripped directly from Torchlight, developed by Runic Games.
Currently this is still available on the Canadian App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/armed-heroes-online-3d-mmorpg/id533790395?mt=8, I spoke to Runic Games’ Community Manger, Brian Ward via Twitter:
@Hawk_SE We've contacted Apple and are waiting for them to take action. The best thing we can do right now is to spread the word. #StolenTL
— Brian Ward (@brianward) July 17, 2012
A thread started by Serena Zhang at EGLS, Ltd on TouchArcade went on to discuss the differences between their game and Torchlight – which they have been accused of stealing assets from. Travis Baldtree, who has worked on Fate and Torchlight stepped in to point out some of the things EGLS failed to mention or completely sidestepped.
A comparison image provided by Travis shows the artwork is identical, save for some alterations made by the developer to appear different. Also included with Travis’ post is the fact that misspellings existed in the files used that were never fixed. Having unpacked the files for Armed Heroes Online, he found the exact same misspellings.
Can you spot the differences? I can’t.
It’s deplorable that EGLS expected to profit (through microtransactions) in their free-to-play mobile game. It’s sickening that they defend their position that they did not steal assets and then try to turn the tables on Runic for borrowing from other games.
Hopefully EGLS or Apple will do the right thing and remove the game from the App Store and so the game can be redesigned to be re-released. I just hope they don’t steal from a different game next time. #StolenTL
