Oakever Games faces multiple copyright cases over alleged game cloning

Oakever Games, the developer behind mobile hits including Vita Mahjong, Amaze Go and Meowdoku, is fighting copyright infringement cases brought by two separate publishers over allegations that it has cloned their games.

In April 2025, a California judge ruled in favour of Aretis Limited, which operates as Block Blast maker Hungry Games, against Oakever. The court found that Oakever's puzzle game QBlock had "essentially the same artwork and design interface" as Block Blast and copied some of its audio effects. QBlock was later rebranded as Wood Block Puzzle Games.

A second case was filed against Oakever by Avia Games in December 2025. Court filings accuse Oakever of copying eight copyrighted ads by replacing the original game and studio logos with its own. Oakever failed to submit required documentation, allowing Avia Games to pursue the case through alternative legal means, though the litigation remains ongoing.

Oakever Games was founded in February 2016 by Liu Yiwei and Li Zhong, who met when Yiwei was running AdMob at Google China. The company, which also operates under the names Learnings and Vita Studio, now employs 200 to 300 people, with 85 percent working in research and development. Beyond its recent titles, the studio has released Paint By Number, Tile Explorer, Jigsawscapes and Zen Word.

An anonymous executive at a major publisher told MobileGamer.biz that multiple large studios have alerted Apple and Google to Oakever's practices. Google is monitoring the situation, the source said, but suggested Apple has been inactive. Apple confirmed that developers have successfully used the App Store's content dispute process to force Oakever to change or remove apps deemed to be clones, citing multiple disputes of this nature. App Store Review Guideline 4.1 prohibits impersonating other apps or services, with violations potentially resulting in removal from the App Store.

The executive characterized Oakever's approach as systematic. "[Oakever's] entire strategy is to copy others' work," the source alleged. "Developers are becoming increasingly alarmed by the normalisation of copying in the market, especially when some actors openly frame it as a business strategy."

The source warned that rapid cloning could discourage original development. "If original ideas can be rapidly cloned and pushed into the same storefronts, the incentive to take creative risks is weakened, and the stores themselves become less valuable to consumers." The executive acknowledged that gaming has always advanced through iteration but stressed the distinction between inspiration and deliberate consumer confusion.

One example cited was Arrows Go, released by Learnings in April as a competitor to Miniclip-owned Lessmore's Arrows game. By May, the title had changed to Amaze Go.