Gameloft responds to complaints of 'copycat' iPhone games

During his recent trip to Gameloft's Paris HQ, Pocket Gamer's Tracy Erickson got to grill the company's vice president of publishing Gonzague de Vallois about various subjects, notably in-app purchases, thirdparty publishing and the possible opening up of its Gameloft Live social networking technology.

You can read all about it over on PocketGamer.biz.

However, there's one part of the interview that's more relevant to the Pocket Gamer audience: the tricky question of Gameloft and its 'copycat games.'

We've certainly had some fun over the months with those Modern Combat-Modern Warfare, Dungeon Hunter-Diablo, Blades of Fury-Soul Calibur, and now N.O.V.A.-Halo quips.

So good on Tracy for tackling de Vallois on the subject.

His response is fairly robust.

"People want these games," he observes. "We look at what is going to be successful on iPhone and move forward from there."

He also points out that Gameloft is releasing original games too, such as Castle of Magic and Wild West Guns, alongside console licences like Assassin's Creed and Driver.

And the bottom line is: "Only good games will sell in the long term".

You can read the entire interview - Gameloft's de Vallois talks in-app purchases, third-party publishing and copycat games - over on PocketGamer.biz.