Zynga responds to Electronic Arts’ accusation – Video Games Update
Zynga has lashed back at Electronic Arts (EA) and have called out EA’s decision to sue Zynga as ‘ironic’ since it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Earlier today, EA had announced that the giant publisher was going to take action against the Social Gaming giant, Zynga, because their latest Facebook game, the Ville, is pretty much a blatant rip off of EA’s The Sims, which was developed by Maxis and is
one of the most popular PC franchises ever.
EA also stated that Zynga has gained all its fame from plagiarising intellectual properties (IP) by other developers and getting them on Facebook first. There is some truth to the statement as pretty much all of Zynga’s IPs are heavily ‘inspired’ by already
established games. EA believes that Zynga just slaps on a fresh coat of paint on an existing game and calls it something else.
Zynga’s general counsel, Reggie Davis, has responded and defends the company by claiming that The Ville is not a complete repackaging of the Sims and includes many innovative game mechanics and social gaming features not found in other social games today.
He went on to say that the Ville builds on all the innovative features found in the previous Zynga Ville games like YoVille, CastleVille and CityVille.
"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. 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," said Davis as he accused EA of being guilty of the same crime that it’s suing Zynga for.
It seems that Zynga is pretty confident that it can successfully distinguish between the two games even though the majority of the gamers claim them to be pretty much identical. Gamers in general are pretty impartial regarding this news as both the companies
are in the gamers’ bad books these days as both EA and Zynga have been accused of copying other successful IPs numerous times.
Even though EA aren’t as blatant as Zynga, the giant publisher does try again and again to get its own version of every successful game. Comments on forums and gaming websites suggest that gamers believe that they will win no matter what the outcome of the
case will be.
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