[MBCook]

I really love Threes, I've been sad to see this mess continue. I feel so bad for that guy, making such a great app and then having a rip-off take so many sales. Truth is he's lucky he got 2 or 3 weeks before it happened.

This is still a big problem Apple has though. I have a hard time with the whole "curated app store" thing when nearly every search turns up screen after screen of low quality copy-cat garbage. How long was Pokemon Yellow on the store before it finally got pulled? How many 'strategy guides' and 'Angry Falcons' and 'Crash of Clans' are there?

[JohnTHaller]

While they are similar in many ways, the way the games operate is quite different, too. And I say that as someone who bought 3s on Android and enjoys 2048 in its many variants.

[MBCook]

I'm glad that 2048 at least changed the formula some as opposed to being a pure rip-off. And they obviously got some gain from the fact the game could be played online without needing a smartphone.

Making 1024 and putting something akin to 'Why waste money on Threes, here's a copy' in the app description was just classless though. I don't see any redeeming value in that.

[Crito]

I doubt I would have ever heard of the Threes game if it were not for all the 2048 games on HN.

Additionally, from the article: "For the makers of “Threes,” the good news is that the emergence of the clones hasn’t decimated its market share – the app is still a Top 10 title in Puzzle Games, Card Games and the general Games category in the U.S. and a top 20 Overall app on the U.S. App Store. (All Paid rankings, which, to be fair, is less competitive than the Free ranks.)"

It's also important to note that just because I played doge2048 for a few hours doesn't mean that I would have been willing to pay $2 for Threes. 2048 and it's variations exposed me to his idea, but did not cost him my purchase.

[Touche]

2048 took off because it was open source and people could easily change a couple of things like the tiles and create stuff like the Doctor Who Edition.

When you choose to do closed source software that's the trade-off you're making.

[lotsofmangos]

Threes is in the top ten for their segment of the app store according to the article, so I think you might be over egging your dismay.

Also, most of this has been on github, which has nothing to do with app stores anyway.