Here"s The Ville ...
Electronic Arts is finally taking on one of its biggest rivals in the social gaming space, Zynga. EA announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Zynga, claiming that the company"s Facebook-based game The Ville violates copyrights from EA.
Specifically, EA"s press release states that, in their opinion, " ... Zynga copied the original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social in a clear violation of the U.S. copyright laws." EA launched The Sims Social on Facebook in August 2011. Zynga launched The Ville just a couple of months ago, in June 2012.
... and here"s The Sims Social.
In their statement, EA Maxis manager Lucy Bradshaw stated:
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.
News.com received a statement from Zynga, which claims that The Ville " ... builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games ..." while also adding new features. The statement added, "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."
Zynga also claims that EA"s recently launched SimCity Social game " ... bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga"s CityVille game." It did not state it would file a lawsuit of its own.
Source: EA press release | Images via Zynga and EA