To complement the earlier post about the Threes team, here’s some background on the creation of 2048. One interesting comment:

Cirulli said he has made a “few hundred bucks” off of the game from player donations, but has not advertised on the website. He added that his intention was never really to make a profit and he is “extremely satisfied” with the money he has received.

The question in my mind is, where’s the harm here? Both games are fun, and it seems like the Threes team made their money. Is there room for both in the world? I think there is a line, but I think a money grab is where that line gets crossed. To me, this was more of an homage, an inspired weekend project, than a ripoff. But to be clear, I can certainly understand why this doesn’t sit well with the Threes team, who worked so very hard to bring their originally crafted beauty into the world.

Just some food for thought.

UPDATE: I love writing for the Loop. I also love (mostly) the comments that come from the community. I’d like to excerpt two on this post:

No Dave, just no. Why is it perfectly OK for this guy to rip off all the development work that the Threes team did? He says his game is based on 1024! which is a free app store game which blatantly states that it’s a free version of Threes. What really sticks in my throat is the self important note on the 2048 site: “Note: This site is the official version of 2048. […] All other apps or sites are derivatives or fakes, and should be used with caution.” WTF? His is “official” and he warns against derivatives or fakes?? His game is a derivative of a derivative. What right does he have to warn about any other rip offs?

And this one:

The problem is exactly as was stated by the Threes team – they got their thunder stolen. Actually, it’s the exact same problem Apple has with Samsung. You spend an inordinate amount of time working on something, only to have some asswipe rip you off in a few minutes. The CNBC article makes it look like the kid is some sort of genius for coming up with the idea in a weekend, when all he did was copy someone else’s hard work. Where is the article on Threes? Or even a mention? Whether 2048 charges for it or not, he’s still taking money away from the developers by giving away their hard work for free. It also opens up the flood gates for other cloners…

I have to say, I really did not see this clearly. Mea culpa. These are fair points and I wanted to make sure that anyone reading this post got to see this perspective. Thanks to Collider and GadgetGav for taking the time to write these up. Good on you.