10 Video Games Popular Franchises Stole From

Okay, there is no way to comprehend how mind-bogglingly successful Minecraft is. At this moment, it's made, give-or-take, 89 bajillion dollars. The game is used in schools across the globe to help students understand architecture and chemistry.

Minecraft may be one of the most influential games of recent times but that doesn't mean it's original. Zachtronics founder, Zach Barth, created a block-mining sandbox game called Infiniminer in 2009; two years before the release of Minecraft.

Not only does Infiniminer have the same blocky style as Minecraft, but both games revolve around building structures out of mined resources. Infiniminer and Minecraft look so similar, it's difficult to distinguish the two at a glance.

There is no mistake about it; Minecraft is inarguably a rip-off of Infiniminer. Minecraft developer, Markus Persson, has confirmed that upon seeing Infiniminer, he "decided it was the game he wanted to do" and the mechanics and terrain for Minecraft were taken directly from Zach Barth's work.

After Barth cancelled Infiniminer due to a source code leak, it was easy for Minecraft to be released without Persson suffering legal consequences.