Gameloft

Imagine, if you will, a company that lives on the philosophy of creating movies that heavily imitate current feature films for the sole purpose of getting a quick buck.

Now apply that philosophy to making games for mobile phones and the iOS.

Thus, you have Gameloft, a developer that of portable titles that are playable and graphically polished but not quite perfect reproductions of titles such as Halo, Final Fantasy XIII, Burnout, Diablo, and many others. They are an offshoot of French megadeveloper Ubisoft (the two companies' founders are brothers), and thus are also responsible for creating portable versions of Ubisoft's franchises, such as Assassin's Creed and Rayman 2.

This formula has made Gameloft one of the most successful mobile developers, but the message Gameloft's success sends makes them one of the most controversial. To console and PC developers, it says that gamers want mobile versions of all these games, and if they don't provide them, someone else will. To other mobile developers, it says that you can be successful simply by copying someone else's idea and doing a half-decent job of it. The actual quality of their games is similarly mixed, characterized by high production values for IOS Games but weak voice acting and story and slightly outdated gameplay mechanics.

Considering that many of the games they rip off of are nowhere to be found on iOS devices (with some exceptions; Grand Theft Auto III, for one, has been released on the iOS and Android), Gameloft is in fact one of the few companies that is making the iPod a competitive gaming device.

They are now moving into downloadable console titles, publishing games like Dungeon Hunter Alliance and Modern Combat for the PlayStation 3, as well as Let's Golf 3D for the Nintendo 3DS.

Their monthly Gameloft Video Podcast can be found on their Youtube page.