EA sues Zynga for copyright infringement

Game developer and publisher Electronic Arts is now suing Zynga for infringing the copyrights of its Facebook game – The Sims Social. Apparently Zynga’s The Ville, that was detailed at an event in June this year, attracted the attention of EA and prompted the third-largest gaming company to file a complaint in the U.S. district court today. EA now claims that Zynga has willfully and intentionally copied and misappropriated the original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social game. Zynga has yet to respond to the allegations. It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit will proceed, considering the fact that game genres are not patentable. Check out EA’s statement after the break.

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. 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.

This is a case of principle. Maxis isn’t the first studio to claim that Zynga copied its creative product. But we are the studio that has the financial and corporate resources to stand up and do something about it. Infringing a developer’s copyright is not an acceptable practice in game development. By calling Zynga out on this illegal practice, we hope to have a secondary effect of protecting the rights of other creative studios who don’t have the resources to protect themselves.

Today, we hope to be taking a stand that helps the industry protect the value of original creative works and those that work tirelessly to create them.

Gene Ryan Briones
Categories: Gaming
Tags: electronic arts, Legal, zynga