Electronic Arts sues Zynga for copyright infringment

[Guild McCommunist]

Game publishing giant Electronics Arts has sued social game giant Zynga for copyright infringment in regards to their Facebook game The Ville, claiming similarities between its own social game, The Sims Social.

In response, Zynga said the lawsuit is "ironic", claiming that The Sims Social actually stole from their own title Cityville. EA responded by saying they profit from plagiarism, which "discourages innovation"

This isn't the first time Zynga has been accused of plagiarism. Before the lawsuit, Zynga has also been accused of copyright infringment on its title "Dream Heights", bearing similarities to popular iOS game Tiny Tower as well as copying Bingo Blitz and myFarm.

Zynga has recently been in some dire straits. Recently, their share price plummeted to $3, with many higher ups in the company cashing out before the crash. This has led to investigations of insider trading at the company.

Source #1, Source #2, Source #3

 

[Deleted member 194275]

So PopCap should sue everybody that put match 3 gems on games?

I dont agree to this kind of claim from EA. No company owns a game style.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

So PopCap should sue everybody that put match 3 gems on games?

I dont agree to this kind of claim from EA. No company owns a game style.

I don't know if PopCap invented match-3 puzzlers but yeah, they should.

I'm with EA on this one. Zynga has been making a fortune basically making social clones. It does discourage innovation if you can make a sizeable profit off of others' ideas.

 

[DragorianSword]

Guild is right.
Zynga should have been sued a lot more by stealing the ideas of others.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

If this goes through, Zynga may be in for one epic shitstorm of lawsuits.

 

[DjoeN]

Well I lik hidden chronicles, but when i played The Ville, it really feeled the same as the sims on ios and the sims social (So not my kind of game anyway)

But if EA does, indeed alot of other companies can do, but i think there should be no claim on a game concept, every good game gets cloned somehow. (and lucky for us it happens)
What would the world be without FPS if nobodyh could ever clone Wolfenstein 3D / Doom / RoTT / Etc...
Cause of those others making a clone of your game, we the user benefit (mostly) cause then the company has to make a better game to stay on top.
If there isn't competition, there's no evolution and no updates to improve games and games then get bored after awhile.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Well I lik hidden chronicles, but when i played The Ville, it really feeled the same as the sims on ios and the sims social (So not my kind of game anyway)

But if EA does, indeed alot of other companies can do, but i think there should be no claim on a game concept, every good game gets cloned somehow. (and lucky for us it happens)
What would the world be without FPS if nobodyh could ever clone Wolfenstein 3D / Doom / RoTT / Etc...
Cause of those others making a clone of your game, we the user benefit (mostly) cause then the company has to make a better game to stay on top.
If there isn't competition, there's no evolution and no updates to improve games and games then get bored after awhile.

It's not the game concept that's the issue, is blatant and direct copying.

Like no one should sue over having similar concepts. Like even Call of Duty, recent Medal of Honor titles, and Homefront are different in some respects. Grand Theft Auto, Saint's Row, and True Crime are all different to a degree. But there's direct and blatant rip offs. It doesn't cause competition, it's other people like Zynga and Gameloft who take other successful titles and just copy-paste them basically.

This doesn't make competition. Sonic and Mario were competition. The question of the day back then was who would win. Both series are platformerrs but entirely different. This meant that Nintendo couldn't just keep pooping out Super Mario Bros. and Sega couldn't keep pooping out Sonic the Hedgehog. They had to change to get better. It's how we went from Super Mario Bros. to Super Mario Galaxy, Sonic the Hedgehog to, um... Sonic Generations?

And there was a substantial amount of Doom clones and such of the day and it made the market stale. FPS games never really got a kick in the ass until Half Life came around.

EDIT: If you want a good film comparison, think of Asylum. If you don't know who they are, they make a bunch of those shitty Sci-Fi (now SyFy) direct-to-DVD movies and often rip off popular films. They did "Transmorphers" when Transformers came out, "American Warships" when Battleship came out, shit like that. They're profiting off of someone else's work (I would've said "hard work" but it's not like much thought was put into Transformers or Battleship, but they did rip off quality films like Sherlock Holmes so I guess that's some hard work). The make low quality, low budget rip offs to ride the coattails of others. They don't create competition, they're parasites who seep profits and intellectual properties from the big boys.

 

[DjoeN]

didn't look at it that way, If you look at it that way, yeah, you are right. maybe that's why i only play hidden chronicles, cause i like those kind of find this stuff games (and the social stuff integrated) this doesn't mean i like all those pc games with the same concept, you miss the social stuff in there

But true, the mario and sonic games where in the day real competition of games in the same genre (and yeah shutup about those cheap movie knock off's as a SF fan i tried a few to see what it was, damned, that was a shocker!

 

[shakirmoledina]

if its an idea, google should be sued for everything they have made
Android -- iOS
Google Chrome -- Firefox/Safari
Picasa -- Many like adobe bridge
Talk -- MSN/Yahoo
Gmail - Hotmail/Yahoo Mail
Translator - Star21 etc etc
Youtube - How many services are there? Vimeo
G+ -- Facebook
Google Search - Yahoo Search

What google have done is take an idea and make it better. There is nothing more ridiculous than saying he stole my idea. Does it mean he stole ur thoughts?

If Zynga took the Sims Code and reversed engineered it to their own... its STILL NOT unfair. If they took it and sold it in the same way with their own name slapped onto it, then YES its unfair.
Innovation is another thing that is based on the company's personal image they want to create of themselves. As far as i know, they have not copied the software but rather the idea. I dont see how they have BROKEN the law. True they are acting cheaply for copying ideas but they do not infringe on the software itself.

This is only my humble opinion

 

[retKHAAAN]

So how similar does a game have to be in order for there to be copyright infringment?

 

[TLOZ]

Just think of Diablo, Torchlight and Path of Exile - they're all pretty much the same game if you think of it (they even use the same GUI, ffs!).
I just really, really hate Zynga, so I hope they get sued to death at some point.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Okay, there's a difference between blatant copyright infringement and making a similar game. There's a difference between Diablo and Torchlight. Environment, art, even some mechanics to an extent.

Here's an image via The Escapist:

They're almost identical. Making a game in the same genre or with similar elements is different from making the same game with the same elements. It's pretty obvious they were creating a dupe of Sims Social here. Games like Torchlight had no intention of being a dupe.

It's like GIana Sisters and Super Mario Bros. here.

 

[Warrior522]

For once, I'm cheering for EA. I never once thought I'd type that, but I am. Fuck copycats and the people who profit off of them.

 

[TLOZ]

Stuff like this happens on iOS all the time (new drinking game: take a shot for every temple run rip-off you find in the app store).
But now that I've seen the screenshots (haven't seen either one of them before) it's a pretty obvious copy.
And yeah, maybe the Diablo/Torchlight comparison isn't very appropriate in this case.
But again: Zynga always did that. They just can't do any better. All they can do is buying things that are successful - and if they can't have it, they copy it. Simple as that.

 

[shadowmanwkp]

if its an idea, google should be sued for everything they have made
Android -- iOS
OS that can run on many devices and proprietary software

Google Chrome -- Firefox/Safari
Eteranal beta browser with emphasis on speed, browser with emphasis on innovation and security over speed, browser with ease of use in mind

Picasa -- Many like adobe bridge
free to use and not by google, proprietary adobe software

Talk -- MSN/Yahoo
All of them work wildly different

Gmail - Hotmail/Yahoo Mail
All of them work wildly different

Translator - Star21 etc etc
translator that uses user feedback, some random machine translator

Youtube - How many services are there? Vimeo
not by google and the pioneer so no ripoff possible, oh hey piggybacker

G+ -- Facebook
Emphasis on groups of friends, emphasis on individual friends

Google Search - Yahoo Search
Two different search engines that work differently with google coming out on top if you look at how they handle searches

What google have done is take an idea and make it better. There is nothing more ridiculous than saying he stole my idea. Does it mean he stole ur thoughts?
This is not about stealing ideas, but blatant carbon copying. If you really think copyright infringement works as you would suggest, only one car in the world could exist, only one painting, etc. only because they have the same idea. We know how that worked out in the end.

 

[Hadrian]

Thing with Zynga is that they didn't even bother, with all of their money, development teams...not once did they try to even remotely try to do something different to separate what they were doing to the game they were ripping off.

Gameloft are guilty of this too, none of their clones try for a moment to differentiate to what their ripping off either.

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

Somewhat glad to hear this...I absolutely despise zynga but I don't think EA is the best example of a good company either.

 

[LiuAlan]

I like EA better.

 

[Gahars]

I'd applaud EA, but have they seen Zynga's stocks? At this rate, the only thing they'll win from the settlement will be a soup can and some lint.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Okay, there's a difference between blatant copyright infringement and making a similar game. There's a difference between Diablo and Torchlight. Environment, art, even some mechanics to an extent.

Here's an image via The Escapist:

They're almost identical. Making a game in the same genre or with similar elements is different from making the same game with the same elements. It's pretty obvious they were creating a dupe of Sims Social here. Games like Torchlight had no intention of being a dupe.

It's like GIana Sisters and Super Mario Bros. here.

I am glad the names are over the pictures, I couldn't tell them apart with out it... Not that I have played either game but I do at least know what the Sims looks like.

About the whole match three gems thing I would think Sega sort of invented that one? I think it was called Columns or something.

I'd applaud EA, but have they seen Zynga's stocks? At this rate, the only thing they'll win from the settlement will be a soup can and some lint.

Hahahahahah too true!