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Buffalo Studios claimed that Zynga's Bingo game is copied from its Bingo Blitz, both of which are popular on Facebook, but Zynga's CEO, Mark Pincus, denies the accusations.

 

In an interview with VentureBeat, Pincus said that not only is Zynga Bingo not a copy of Buffalo's game, but that Buffalo copied elements of its Poker Blitz game. He added that numerous other companies have copied its games in the past, such as the many almost identical clones of its popular FarmVille title, like Farm Town, My Farm and Happy Farm.

 

Of course, just because other people or companies do it doesn't necessarily make it right, but Pincus claims that there shouldn't be an issue if a game idea is taken and improved upon. Considering the game in question is the age-old bingo, we suppose he might have a point.

 

 

This isn't the first time Zynga has been accused of plagiarism, however. Game developer NimbleBit accused Zynga's Dream Heights game of copying its Tiny Tower title, right down to the exact game mechanics, such as the numbers of business types, workers, products, and so forth.

 

Pincus denied this, saying that games within a certain genre will definitely have similar features, but that Zynga evolves these games much further. He said that Tiny Tower is not the first game of its kind and has striking similarities with previous titles like SimTower and Tower of Babel.

 

In a letter to employees, which was intended to be confidential, Pincus said that just as Google was not the first creator of the search engine, nor Facebook the first creator of the social network, Zynga does not have to be first to market with a game – but it does have to be “best in market.” That means evolving a game beyond its original idea.

 

Since no lawsuits have been filed over the alleged plagiarism, the issue remains open to debate. There are definite cases for either side, and the burning question is how much of an idea can be used before it becomes plagiarism, and how far plagiarism accusations can go before they start hurting the gaming industry, where reinvented titles are common.

 

Source: VentureBeat