Game-developer electronic arts started a lawsuit against games company Zynga for alleged copyright infringements. In August 2011, EA’s subsidiary Maxis launched the game ‘The Sims Social’, a Facebook-version of the popular Sims games. In June 2012, Zynga introduced ‘ The Ville’, in which Zynga ‘copied the original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social’, according to EA’s General Managers Lucy Bradshaw. “The copying was so comprehensive that the two games are, to an uninitiated observer, largely indistinguishable”, she states. 

Maxis is not the first studio to accuse Zynga of copyright infringements. Buffalo Studios, Nimblebit and other studios have complained about cloning and copying by Zynga before, but most of these companies do not have the resources to sue. EA hopes to help to protect the rights of these companies as well, by reminding Zynga of the legal limits of copying game concepts. EA is confident in their position, but even if they won’t prevail they will have made a point. 

Zynga, on the other hand, argues they did not infringe any copyright of EA and that EA clearly lacks understanding of basic copyright principles. According to them, TheVille is a successor of their previous games CityVille and CastleVille. They state to have introduced a number of new social features that are not found in other games (such as The Sims Social). Zynga even claims that SimCity Social bears an uncanny resemblance to their game CityVille, which was released before SimCity Social. Clearly, this legal battle is far from settled. We will watch developments around EA and Zynga closely. Perhaps it will lead to jurisprudence that clarifies the law on the limits of game cloning in the next few months.

Read more on copyright issues around game development on Future of Copyright:

• Dutch developers Vlambeer fuel discussion on game clone
• Zynga’s game ‘evolutions’ accused of plagiarism

Sources: The Verge; The Register; EA; Venture Beat

By Nathalie Falot