Gameloft unveils StarCraft II lookalike

By Fred Dutton Published 7 February, 2011

Ballsy studio puts head in lion's mouth.

After offering up bargain basement riffs on Uncharted and Call of Duty in recent months, mobile and budget game specialist Gameloft has unwrapped it's latest 'homage' - an intergalactic iPhone RTS called Starfront: Collision.

Anyone care to take a guess from where it might be drawing inspiration? A quick glimpse at the trailer below should offer up a few oblique clues.

Yes, if you squint hard enough you should be able to spot a few similarities with Blizzard's quite-successful PC strategy title StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

Gameloft's visionary twist on the genre sees three factions battle it out for control of a mineral-rich planet called Sinistral. There's a space marine-y humanoid posse called The Consortium, a bug-faced alien species called The Myriad and a savant robot race called The Wardens.

As well as all the standard resource management and strategic combat-orientated gameplay you'd expect from an RTS, Gameloft has shoehorned four-way multiplayer in there too.

Considering how notoriously protective Blizzard is over its intellectual property, Gameloft is either very brave, very stupid or has a ninja legal team.

Last month, Gameloft chief Michel Guillemot defended his studio's output from plagiarism allegations, insisting, "The videogame industry has always played around a limited number of themes. There is maybe one new idea a year.

"If a type of game is not available, then you should make it. The damaging thing is if you do a bad expression of a good idea."

Curious iPhone users can find out how Starfront measures up on 10th February.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Fillem #1 1 year ago

    I'm guessing this video is so shameful I'm not even allowed to watch it?

  • MattEdWithCheese #2 1 year ago

    Why is it that i feel filled with rage at everything gameloft does but laugh gleefully whenever i hear about the asylum's next mockbuster?

  • darkmorgado #3 1 year ago

    Seriously, how the hell do they keep getting away with this?

  • MasterNameless #4 1 year ago

    I understand what he's saying with lots of games around that are very similar. I mean, even copying Starcraft and repackaging it, is what countless devs do with FPS' every year... but after copying so blatantly, and then calling it Starfront is really asking for trouble!

    At the very least, they should have given it a very different name.

  • Triggerhappytel #5 1 year ago

    Unbelievable. Y'know, I actually hope Blizzard sue the shit out of them and Gameloft get taken to the cleaners, because everyone bleats on about DRM and piracy, but they're probably the biggest criminals out there.

  • ISmoke #6 1 year ago

    I wonder what game is next for the ultra original Gameloft staff.

  • Triggerhappytel #7 1 year ago

    Next from Gameloft:

    Guitar Champion
    SmallLargeWorld
    Dark Spaceship
    Demons Might Weep
    Holocaust 3: Old Nevada
    Massive Affect

  • CaptainQuint #8 1 year ago

    The reason they keep making this shit is because people keep buying this shit.

  • darkmorgado #9 1 year ago

    Don't forget:

    Cogs of Conflict
    Last Legend
    Bodyscare
    Hitman's Oath
    Angel Ring

  • Nuronv #10 1 year ago

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

  • Triggerhappytel #11 1 year ago

    And:

    Crimson Deceased Reparation
    EternalQuesting
    Adam Walk
    Quiet Hillock
    Wyvern Era
    Requirement for Haste
    Undead Risen
    Playmobil Buccaneers of the Philippines

  • DreadedWalrus #12 1 year ago

    "The videogame industry has always played around a limited number of themes. There is maybe one new idea a year, and we're doing our utmost to prevent that number from hitting two".

    You see, there's a difference between "themes", and basically replicating the entire look and feel of popular games. Noone accuses Battlefield of being a Call of Duty rip-off, or vice versa, just because they're both team-based online first person shooters. Noone accused Uncharted of being a Tomb Raider rip-off, just because they both featured acrobatic platforming and exploration of tombs and the like. The difference between mainstream games that share the same genres and Gameloft's games is that Gameloft's games seem specifically designed to replicate existing games as closely as possible without actually being legally in the wrong. Only time will tell if that is actually the case.
    Edited by DreadedWalrus at 08/02/11 @ 00:54

  • Gastrian #13 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • darkmorgado #14 1 year ago

    I look forward to reading your dissertation.

  • Triggerhappytel #15 1 year ago

    Perhaps that's true when talking specifically about Starfront vs. Starcraft, Gastrian, but overall I don't think there's any defence for Gameloft's business practice - as Walrus points out above, their aim is clearly to replicate existing successful franchises as closely as possible without incurring legal wrath.

    It must be quite depressing to work for a company who specialises in plagiarism such as Gameloft, as they produce some impressive games for mobile platforms and if only their creative juices were allowed to flow, rather than having this strict agenda of copying other peoples' work.

    Although they have a lot of comedy typos in their trailers, which I find pretty entertaining.

  • governmentyard #16 1 year ago

    Why is this a thing?

    We had Transformers, then we had Gobots. Alien comes out, Species comes out, then you get 'Alien Species' in Blockbuster. Boybands. Fast Food Restaurants. They're all pretty identikit. People laugh it off, sometimes even pay for the stuff, but when it's the most successful entertainment industry around today, somehow it's a thing.

    Normally things will either be shit and flop like they deserve, or be sufficient and the market will bear them, which is why we have McDonald's and Burger King coexisting quite happily. Every now and then, the imitator becomes a decent franchise in its own right, whether we're talking Star Wars*, which was just the best Flash Gordon Lucas could muster, or something literary like Terry Brook's Shannara series, which while not to my tastes evolved from a straight LOTR rip off (just like everything in the whole fucking genre) into a popular set of books with a range of prequels that did something different very well.

    I can't play Halo on my Android, but if I wanted to, which I don't, I can play Gameloft's Nova. As for this Starcraft 'tribute' - anything that kick starts the RTS era on tablets is a good thing. Someone had to make the first major move in the market and all the other houses knew good and well long enough ago to get something out that Gameloft would be first if they weren't.

    I'd imagine Blizzard would crush them if they are at all arsed, though. And who's to say the majors aren't happy for these inferior copies to test the water for them before the inevitable push for major franchises on the iThings? Perhaps they'll innovate something control wise that Blizzard can then rip off without fear of prosecution, or maybe they'll wait until a good clone comes out of something, then rob all the staff to work on the real deal.

    * Now not a decent franchise. 12 years of hurt and counting, George.
    Edited by governmentyard at 08/02/11 @ 01:44

  • paketep #17 1 year ago

    Yeah, because Blizzard has *never* based his games on taking what everybody else was doing at the time and giving it a couple of extra layers of polish.

    The fact that Blizz releases the lawyers so easily (especially since the Acti merger) to defend "their" IP (sure, no one has done space marines, aliens and predators before!) is pure hipocrisy on their part.

  • ISmoke #18 1 year ago

    Darknorgado. I used the name 'Cogs of Conflict' in the article about Epic talking about the NGP. Gameloft can't steal that one from me (us)

    Good game names otherwise

  • darkmorgado #19 1 year ago

    Hang on.

    ISmoke = Minkley?

  • CaptainKid #20 1 year ago

    Hehehe the intro reminds me of Starship troopers.

  • Freelancepolice #21 1 year ago

    My problem with this isn't how much it copies anything, it's just that it looks so bland and dull.

  • levitate #22 1 year ago

    It's actually possible to copy/pay homage to something without making look like absolute tosh. That's the first lesson Gameloft has to learn.

  • arcam #23 1 year ago

    So I guess I'm the only one that thought it actually looked pretty good?

  • Avaloner #24 1 year ago

    Reminds me of Starcraft... just like Starcraft reminds me of Warhammer 40K

  • DrStrangelove #25 1 year ago

    I think they deserve an imagination award for the planet name "Sinistral".

  • bobfish09 #26 1 year ago

    To be fair, Gameloft actually make pretty good games, their ideas may not be original, but I'd rather have a good clone than an original game that is complete crap.

  • DrStrangelove #27 1 year ago

    And while I do find it cheesy to blatantly imitate, in some cases I also wonder what's the damage done to the original developer. Will less people buy Starcraft 2 on PC/Mac because of this iPhone ripoff?

  • Spekingur #28 1 year ago

    Yeah, okay everyone. Let us all forget that the original Starcraft universe is based on Warhammer40k's universe.

  • darleysam #29 1 year ago

    Baudrillard would love this, they're copying Blizzard copying Games Workshop.

  • Rack #30 1 year ago

    If Blizzard complain they should just say they were ripping of Warhammer 40k...

  • Lord_BeeJee #31 1 year ago

    lol "Conquer the gorgeous landscape of sinistral"

  • ISmoke #32 1 year ago

    Minkley? I'm confused

  • DrStrangelove #33 1 year ago

    Don't accuse Blizzard of stealing the whole Starcraft theme from Warhammer 40k, that's only half true. They stole the other half from Starship Troopers.