It’s not just games it’s everything.
I made (i think) the first automatic face swap app back in 2012 when face detection first appeared in iOS.
It did pretty well, got into the top 10 around the world. #1 for a bit. Made me some money.
But there were tonnes of copies. One guy even flew over to meet me first from SF and said he wanted to buy the app. Offered me half a million dollars. Then when I said yes cut it to half that after he spoke to ‘the board’. Then said half that again - at which point I told him to go F himself - he’d also added into the contract I had to take the app offline and send him the source code for them to review before finalising, which would have ruined the purely viral growth.
Within 2 weeks he had launched a virtually identical app - and I mean identical. Just a different name and icon. The entire UI was copied down to the smallest detail. So obviously he’d been working on it before I said no.
I think this was his plan all along. To copy my app and use the potential buy out as distraction / disruption.
He then sent me a really angry email with the choice line “if someone offer/ you a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask which seat”.
I made (i think) the first automatic face swap app back in 2012 when face detection first appeared in iOS.
It did pretty well, got into the top 10 around the world. #1 for a bit. Made me some money.
But there were tonnes of copies. One guy even flew over to meet me first from SF and said he wanted to buy the app. Offered me half a million dollars. Then when I said yes cut it to half that after he spoke to ‘the board’. Then said half that again - at which point I told him to go F himself - he’d also added into the contract I had to take the app offline and send him the source code for them to review before finalising, which would have ruined the purely viral growth.
Within 2 weeks he had launched a virtually identical app - and I mean identical. Just a different name and icon. The entire UI was copied down to the smallest detail. So obviously he’d been working on it before I said no.
I think this was his plan all along. To copy my app and use the potential buy out as distraction / disruption.
He then sent me a really angry email with the choice line “if someone offer/ you a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask which seat”.