Over the weekend, Electronic Arts announced that it has filed a lawsuit against casual gaming giant Zynga over The Ville, which EA claims is an “unmistakable” copy of The Sims Social, and is in “clear violation” of copyright laws.
“As outlined in our complaint, when The Ville was introduced in June 2012, the infringement of The Sims Social was unmistakable to those of us at Maxis as well as to players and the industry at large,” said Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of EA’s Maxis label.
“The similarities go well beyond any superficial resemblance. Zynga’s design choices, animations, visual arrangements and character motions and actions have been directly lifted from The Sims Social. The copying was so comprehensive that the two games are, to an uninitiated observer, largely indistinguishable. Scores of media and bloggers commented on the blatant mimicry.”
In a statement to Game Informer, Zynga general counsel Reggie Davis said that EA’s lawsuit against his Zynga shows a “lack of understanding of basic copyright principles.”
“It’s unfortunate that EA thought that this was an appropriate response to our game, and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic copyright principles,” Davis told the site. “It’s also ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga’s CityVille game. Nonetheless, we plan to defend our rights to the fullest extent possible and intend to win with players.”
[Image via Joystiq]
This wouldn't be the first time a Zynga game was nearly identical to another game. Cafe World (A copy of Playfish's Restaurant City), Mafia Wars (copy of Mob Wars), Dream Heights (copy of Tiny Towers and/or SimTower).
Prior this suit, Zynga has always settled out of court in the cases they would not win. However with Zynga reporting that they have taken in less profit recently, we will have to wait to see how this plays out.
Personally, I would like to see Zynga taken down a peg. Most of their games seem like rehashes of earlier game they made.