Gameloft, iOS's game fuel

Gameloft is known for one thing: its uncanny cloning ability. Several titles have fallen victim to the crafty coding of the French developer based out of Paris – Final Fantasy, Uncharted, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Call of Duty, God of War, Soul Calibur and Resident Evil with plans to create a StarCraft iPad clone. Their online multiplayer service is called Gameloft LIVE and you can obtain trophies (sound familiar?) as well as gaming points for completing certain tasks. Everything about the company wreaks of rip-off… yet I am in love with the company. Gameloft is single handily fueling the iOS gaming platform. They are providing iPhone/iPod/iPad owners with quality console titles despite their blatant inspiration from popular franchises.

The screenshots above are reminiscent of many games I spend my time playing on my Xbox or Wii or my friend’s PS3, yet I commend Gameloft for being able to produce the likes of which they have. I actually collect Gameloft games. It is my guilty pleasure. But mind you, in addition to the wonderful clones that they produce, they have several “official” titles as well: Asphalt, Asssassin’s Creed, Spider-Man, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, James Cameron’s Avatar, Brothers in Arms, Driver, Oregon Trail, UNO, Rayman, Earthworm Jim, Tom Clancy’s HAWX and more. Tell me that you do not begin to drool at that list.

Gameloft’s biggest competitor currently is EA Mobile with the leading sports titles Madden, NBA Elite, NCAA Football and FIFA as well as Battlefield, Need for Speed, Sims and classic board games such as Monopoly, Life and Battleship. They are running the biggest holiday sale with 70 titles tagged at only $.99, thus propelling them up the charts, but Gameloft has initiated their own $.99 sale on their older titles (N.O.V.A 2, Shadown Guardian and Eternal Legacy can’t enter the market at that price, they are worth much more than that!) as a counter-attack.

So all in all, this is my ode to Gameloft. I thank you for all of your December releases, and keep them coming. You have made my trip to my grandmother’s house for Christmas a tad more exciting 🙂