Capcom devs ‘were not told of Splosion Man concept’

Capcom says it wants to ‘rebuild trust’ with the games market after facing growing accusations of plagiarising an XBLA game.

Popular independent outfit Twisted Pixel said Capcom’s new iPhone game, Maxplosion, bears an uncanny resemblance to the hit XBLA game Splosion Man.

Twisted Pixel co-founder Michael Wilford suggested the game was ‘outright theft’, before – in a more serious turn – claiming his studio “originally pitched Splosion Man to Capcom and they said no.”

Capcom confirmed that a meeting did take place, but said its Maxplosion developer – Capcom Mobile – was not privy to such talks.

“While Twisted Pixel did have discussions with our console game team about publishing ‘Splosion Man’ on game consoles, Capcom Mobile is a different division of Capcom with separate offices and as such, had no prior knowledge of any meetings between the console game team and Twisted Pixel,” the company said in a prepared statement to Develop.

The firm did not specifically answer the accusation that Capcom Mobile had knowledge of, and was inspired by, Twisted Pixel’s original game.

It said it was “saddened by this situation and hopes to rebuild the trust of our fans and friends in the gaming community”.

There have been no legal charges against Capcom.