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Uh Oh, Electronic Arts Files Lawsuit Against Zynga

Someone start busting out the popcorn .gifs.

Of course, the only reason I know this is The Sims Social is thanks to the iconic green triangle.
Of course, the only reason I know this is The Sims Social is thanks to the iconic green triangle.

Prepare for a nasty fight, folks.

Electronic Arts has filed a lawsuit against popular social gaming punching bag Zynga over The Ville, accusing Zynga of infringing upon The Sims Social copyrights.

“As a longstanding game developer, I know what it feels like to pour your heart and soul into creating something unique and special for your fans to enjoy,” said Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw in a blog post this afternoon. “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.”

Zynga, of course, disagrees, and issued a statement pushing back on EA’s claims not long after news of the lawsuit became public.

“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,” said Zynga general counsel Reggie Davis. “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.”

EA’s decision to press forward with a lawsuit regarding Sim City Social and The Ville is also baked into a larger context, the publisher argued. EA is not the first company to accuse Zynga of playing fast and loose with game design (see: Nimblebit and Tiny Tower), and EA claims it wants to use this case as a way of settling the score for everybody who’s felt as though Zynga has plucked from them.

Whether or not this is actually true doesn't really matter--it'll prove a popular rallying cry.

"This is a case of principle,” said Bradshaw. “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.”

Ouch.

The lawsuit is online, courtesy of Kotaku, and is a hugely detailed account of EA’s claims. Some of the images are sure to raise an eyebrow. Here’s just a selection:

No Caption Provided
No Caption Provided
No Caption Provided

Zynga has taken a beating in the past few weeks, with its stock price crashing and accusations of insider trading. This is just the latest in a series of negative news waves for the company, and you need only look at the comments on EA's blog post for an indication for how the public is going to react to this lawsuit.

People may not like EA very much, but it turns out they hate Zynga a whole hell of a lot more.

No Caption Provided
Patrick Klepek on Google+

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Brackynews

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Edited By Brackynews

@SmilingPig said:

EA did it, they found the ONE company that gamers hate more than them...*golfclap*

Trip Hawkins, relaxing at home.
Trip Hawkins, relaxing at home.

(Didn't even need to rewrite the caption.)

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ItBeStefYo

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Edited By ItBeStefYo

Its funny/sad how Zynga have so obviously tried hard to come up with alternate names to the personality types sims social has.

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defe

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Edited By defe

"People may not like EA very much, but it turns out they hate Zynga a whole hell of a lot more."

Yeah, that effectively sums up my feelings on the matter. Although I must admit I've never been down with the anti-EA stance as much as some people, I am a bit wary of them. Zynga though? I'm right up with everyone else on that one.

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George_Hukas

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Edited By George_Hukas

Not a Zynga fan, but its pretty annoying how nitpicky EA is being. Claiming something is infringement because its "not typical of online social games" is a total cop out.

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fox01313

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Edited By fox01313

Having actually tried both of these recently while exploring the Sim City Social thing, even I was somewhat amazed at how much of a copy the Zynga version of the Sims on Facebook is. Guessing if nothing else they will settle this out of court with Zynga either scrapping their copy or just overhauling the game to make it quite different.

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sprode

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Edited By sprode

I'm the same as the last commenter in the picture - EA is trash, but I'll support anyone who puts their money towards destroying Zynga.

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xymox

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Edited By xymox

@absolutmauser said:

@WilliamHenry said:

@Xymox said:

Perhaps iD software should sue all who have come after them and made First Person Shooters. If EA wins this lawsuit, I'm sure many others will follow in its wake, as new standards will be set. Yes, Zynga has pretty much always taken the ideas of others and profited on them...

But this seems to go deeper than that, and could potentially enable companies to hold the intellectual property of concepts - efficiently removing any and all competitors who are not patent holders.

It could potentially mean that any game that's even remotely similar to another, gameplay or design-wise, would be illegal.

Or am I reading way too much into it?

You're reading way too much into it. Zynga has done much more than just copy a game concept.

It also wouldn't be setting a new standard. Exactly this kind of suit has been around a long time. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Electronics,_Inc._v._Kaufman re Scramble.

Seeing as how we have a million horizontal shooter clones, I think you're right. And while Zynga hasn't stooped to the shady business of making a fake sequel to another company's game (as far as I'm aware), this isn't the first time for them. Guess all that can be done at this point is popcorn.gif and see where it leads.

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TheMasterDS

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Edited By TheMasterDS

Go get em EA! Get them for everything they're worth!

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Siphillis

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The enemy of my enemy...

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GERALTITUDE

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Edited By GERALTITUDE

@JoeyRavn: Exactly.

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Hangnail

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The lesser evil? Pfft.

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masterfaculty

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Edited By masterfaculty

This goes far beyond mere " inspiration." Zynga is blatantly ripping off other developers' work. Some of the most damning evidence can be found in the complaint, all of which Patrick didn't post (the full complaint can be found on Joystiq). Zynga even went as far as to copy the exact same RGB values for skin tones in the character creator tool. They have a track record with this crap, it needs to stop.

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paulunga

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Edited By paulunga

@SmilingPig said:

EA did it, they found the ONE company that gamers hate more than them...*golfclap*

...uh, Activision?

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Seeric

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Edited By Seeric

I am beyond happy that all these arrows are being fired at Zynga lately, hopefully they'll all score critical hits. Big companies like EA and Activision have played a large roll in creating the relatively stagnant state the video game market is currently in, but Zynga has done so much more than that, specializing in games which are 'addictive' without any sense of creativity nor genuine fun and having astoundingly slimy and just plain horrible business practices along the way.

If EA can win this, especially if they can win big on this, it won't only be a blow against Zynga, it will potentially fling the door wide open for smaller companies to come forth against them and actually be successful because Zynga will have a 'record'.

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TadThuggish

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Edited By TadThuggish

I hope this happens

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bio595

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Edited By bio595

@RustySanderke said:

That ain't a triangle, it's a hexagonal bipyramid.

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r3dt1d3

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Edited By r3dt1d3

I can't believe Zynga has the gall to pretend Cityville wasn't already stolen from someone else in the first place and insinuate EA is stealing from them.

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mosespippy

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Edited By mosespippy

The founder of MP3.com was told this after Warner sued them and won then purchased them with their own money; "Sometimes in business, lawsuits aren't about what is right or wrong. It's about weakening your competitors." I feel like this is the same situation.

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Slab64

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@TadThuggish said:

I hope this happens

You want them to make babies?

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hermes

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Edited By hermes

@Eder: That voting was BS. I mean, EA was faced against truly amoral corporations there (we are talking about corporations that made money out of people loosing their homes, knowingly lying to them; companies that were questioned by the congress), yet EA won because "Mass Effect's ending was bad".

OT: That is some pretty heavy similarities there, but I am not sure they are worst than several MMOs copying a lot of content from WoW in the name of familiarity and learnability.

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GenocidalKitten

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Edited By GenocidalKitten

I think I'm pretty much with everyone else when I say,Yeah!!! Go EA usually I hate them but, I hate zynga wayyyy more.

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Maitimo

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Edited By Maitimo

Will be interesting to see how this pans out. I expect Gameloft will be watching closely.

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hermes

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Edited By hermes

@R3DT1D3 said:

I can't believe Zynga has the gall to pretend Cityville wasn't already stolen from someone else in the first place and insinuate EA is stealing from them.

That is the weakest part of their defense... Its like a child crying he did nothing wrong because "he started it" (which, by the way, its not true, and not really an excuse)

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Chroma_Auron

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Edited By Chroma_Auron

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/03/highlights-from-eas-lawsuit-against-zynga/

Here is the joystick article along with the legal document that you can examine for yourselves. While separately these elements would be fine but many of them are copied almost exactly. The graphical style, furniture, the Hud, and some of the animations. Include how close to each other in release dates and you got a case of blant copyright infringement.

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Evercaptor

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Edited By Evercaptor

@Xymox said:

Seeing as how we have a million horizontal shooter clones, I think you're right. And while Zynga hasn't stooped to the shady business of making a fake sequel to another company's game (as far as I'm aware), this isn't the first time for them.

Did you mean this one?

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BlackLagoon

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So Alien vs. Predator is getting a sequel...

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xymox

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Edited By xymox

@Evercaptor said:

@Xymox said:

Seeing as how we have a million horizontal shooter clones, I think you're right. And while Zynga hasn't stooped to the shady business of making a fake sequel to another company's game (as far as I'm aware), this isn't the first time for them.

Did you mean this one?

I was referring to Scramble & Scramble 2, but that's an interesting point. I don't know the details of DOTA 2 and why they're able to get away with it, but if I were to venture a guess it's because that's what the original mod was called and the ownership for that stuff was fuzzy enough for it to work (or the guys who worked on the mod are employed by valve?) I honestly don't know enough about it.

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Nerolus

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Edited By Nerolus

I like how the Zynga dude's response was basically "That is unfortunate, and bullshit". He doesn't even have any grounds to prove that they're not directly knocking the game off. I mean, sure - it is The Sims. And sure, we're talking about EA games here. I'm surprised to say this, but I've gotta side with EA on this one. Fucking Zynga, man.

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donkeycow

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Edited By donkeycow

@paulunga: Pretty sure most gamers hate EA more then Activision these days.

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viking_funeral

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Edited By viking_funeral

Having personality types like 'Romantic' and 'Social' are copyrighted?

Ah, whatever. Some guy held on to the patent for the word 'edge' in video game titles for nearly forever.

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Evercaptor

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Edited By Evercaptor

@Xymox said:

I was referring to Scramble & Scramble 2, but that's an interesting point. I don't know the details of DOTA 2 and why they're able to get away with it, but if I were to venture a guess it's because that's what the original mod was called and the ownership for that stuff was fuzzy enough for it to work (or the guys who worked on the mod are employed by valve?) I honestly don't know enough about it.

There was a heated legal battle that ended in a truce, if I remember rightly, but your comment of "pseudo-sequels" chased the hair across my mind. It's incredible the shit Valve can get away with through customer good-will, brilliant execution and typical internet attention spans.

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Zaxex

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Edited By Zaxex

It does kind of bother me how much success Zynga sees, blatantly ripping off other games. It helps that I don't like their games, and it sort of reinforces the idea that they don't care much about making high quality games, when they cut corners like this.

God help you if you spend money on Farmville and the like.

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xymox

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@Evercaptor said:

There was a heated legal battle that ended in a truce, if I remember rightly, but your comment of "pseudo-sequels" chased the hair across my mind. It's incredible the shit Valve can get away with through customer good-will, brilliant execution and typical internet attention spans.

Yeah, I remember that one, albeit vaguely. I'm glad it settled in a truce, but I don't even remember how it got resolved. So I have to agree on that.

Zynga sure is under a lot of heat lately.

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ajamafalous

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Edited By ajamafalous

iconic green triangle

:/
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Evercaptor

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Edited By Evercaptor

@xymox deservedly. Zynga has made their bed, now it must sleep in it. Stealing wholesale from the little guy is a whole other game to what they're playing at now.

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tourgen

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Edited By tourgen

@absolutmauser said:

@tourgen said:

Unless they copied and distributed actual EA-created assets or binaries there is no grounds for a suit. Just looking a lot like someone else's product is not copyright infringement.

That's not even close to what the law requires. EA has to show that it owns the copyright in the original work (i.e. The Sims Social), that Zynga copied it (which the court may infer by a showing of "striking similarity" between the two works) and misappropriated protectable parts of the work. That's why the complaint says things like "these categories are not typical" of these kinds of games and that they are not "required" as part of the idea of such a game and also why they are pointing out the similarities.

There are lots of rights that go along with a copyright and they can be infringed in different ways. This is the kind of copyright dispute you get when one creator allegedly steals from another one. You're thinking more along the lines of piracy, which is a different situation. Both are copyright infringement though.

AbM

I wasn't aware that cloning aspects of a work of art without outright copying the material was a copyright violation - the "striking similarity" bit. That's interesting.

I think it's unfortunate if it's true. But then there is a lot about copyright law that does more harm than good in my opinion.

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DoctorWelch

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Edited By DoctorWelch

@Chumppell said:

@DoctorWelch said:

I would equate EA to Vegeta. Yeah, they are kind of a dick, treat people like shit a lot, and are almost always driven by some selfish evil desire, but at least they're fighting with us not against us.

Someone actually wrote this.

Praise be to the Giant Bomb comments section!

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that.

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retrovirus

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Edited By retrovirus

@Anwar said:

@Eder said:

@Godlyawesomeguy: What I mean by that is that Activision wasn't voted one of the worst companies yet EA was. That for me is a pass. Also I tend to read more hate on the Internet but that's just what I see.

The reason why Activision is way worse is that it seems they don't even try. See Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk games. They ruined two awesome franchises and they don't get to be worse company? Thats BS.

Also I wanna know WHAT makes EA so bad? Really I do.

IMO EA is worse than Activision. Activision runs franchises into the ground. I give you that, but EA buys out talented studios and just fucks them up. Bullfrog is gone and other countless studios as well. EA also makes you sit through non-skippable bullshit when you boot up a game(a really minor problem, but still), they require an account for online play, spy-ware in Origins etc.. When I start up MW3 I'm in-game in 5-10 seconds max.

Activision does the exact same thing. Bizzare Creations, Raven, Radical, Neversoft, Beenox and several more all used to develop different games, but have been all turned into Call of Duty support teams over time with maybe one or two yearly iterations of other franchises. The same has been seen with Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero. EA's just been in the public eye more.

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Danda

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Edited By Danda

There's going to be a settlement.

Or (and this would be funny) EA will buy Zynga and then both games will continue to exist and EA will shut up about doing what small companies can't and al that B.S.

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aleryn

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Edited By aleryn

Saw "The Ville" recently and am glad EA is raising a ruckus over this.

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kristov_romanov

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Jean Luc Picard, EA General Counsel
Jean Luc Picard, EA General Counsel
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drwhat

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Oh, Patrick. I hate to break it to you, but that's not a triangle.

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retrovirus

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Edited By retrovirus

@Anwar said:

@RetroVirus said:

@Anwar said:

@Eder said:

@Godlyawesomeguy: What I mean by that is that Activision wasn't voted one of the worst companies yet EA was. That for me is a pass. Also I tend to read more hate on the Internet but that's just what I see.

The reason why Activision is way worse is that it seems they don't even try. See Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk games. They ruined two awesome franchises and they don't get to be worse company? Thats BS.

Also I wanna know WHAT makes EA so bad? Really I do.

IMO EA is worse than Activision. Activision runs franchises into the ground. I give you that, but EA buys out talented studios and just fucks them up. Bullfrog is gone and other countless studios as well. EA also makes you sit through non-skippable bullshit when you boot up a game(a really minor problem, but still), they require an account for online play, spy-ware in Origins etc.. When I start up MW3 I'm in-game in 5-10 seconds max.

Activision does the exact same thing. Bizzare Creations, Raven, Radical, Neversoft, Beenox and several more all used to develop different games, but have been all turned into Call of Duty support teams over time with maybe one or two yearly iterations of other franchises. The same has been seen with Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero. EA's just been in the public eye more.

The difference is that these studios still exist, big difference imo. Tell me the latest game which Bullfrog was developing or helping to develop.

Whatever they would be working on now is inconsequential, since they don't exist. Most likely the same brands would be sullied and working on social/mobile games. At least with some or their studios EA tries new things/reboots, with Activision it's the same old grind. Look at both companies portfolios for the past couple years, and you'll see at least an effort on EA's part, misguided as some of those were (I'm looking at you, Dante's Inferno).

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cheapandtacky

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@Tangeu said:

Sure, I dislike what Zynga is doing but is EA implying that they own the rights to categories of clothing? To skin tone selectors?

No they're stating that Zynga copied their game so they need to show that they are more than just similiar games using the same mechanics. The examples are supposed to demonstrate that the games are identical on some very basic and fundamental levels.

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CrossTheAtlantic

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Edited By CrossTheAtlantic

@GlenTennis said:



like this?

You're like the opposite of opposite of Batman.

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TennSeven

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Edited By TennSeven

: That is an incorrect statement. Copyright protection extends to derivative works, and there are also protections for "trade dress" (partially stemming from copyright and partially stemming from trademark), that cover the "look and feel" of a product.

It is true that Zynga is not violating copyrights over the *code* of The Sims Social unless it truly copied the code, but copyright protects all original expressions in the game itself, not just the code.

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Incapability

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Edited By Incapability

Sure, Zynga has had some dirtbaggy business going on - I was willing to let the whole thing with "The Tower" slide, though, as The Tower was originally... let's call it heavily inspired by other predecessors, such as SimTower. That just came down to competition and market forces, if they wanted to mess with your market, you better step up and make your product competitive rather than cry about it.

While I stand by that opinion, I agree that Maxis has got way more of a case, here. While I hope that Zynga are informed they are in dangerously similar territory, I hope this case doesn't turn into "NO, ONLY WE CAN MAKE THIS TYPE OF GAME!" for a shitload of platforms and products. That's not the point at all, I think it's a good thing some companies are getting inspired and trying to make a competing product. I didn't say "copy shit and sell it", I said compete. Competition is good, it means companies have to go that extra mile to make a worthwhile product, lowers prices, increases consumer benefits - but first, let's get this lawsuit show on the road, let's make sure our competition isn't just copies.

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SSully

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Edited By SSully

@Tangeu said:

Sure, I dislike what Zynga is doing but is EA implying that they own the rights to categories of clothing? To skin tone selectors?

It's not individual things like that, its all of these small things together. It makes it look like Zynga went in sim city social and just wrote down all the features, options, and other essential parts of the game and just copied it down, then slightly reskined it.