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EA/Maxis Sue Zynga for Copyright Infringement

S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
Here's a little foreshadowing: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118867-EA-Zynga-Has-Dropped-to-Their-Knees

Zynga is struggling because it failed to diversify, according to EA's Peter Moore.

EA's stock price has been sinking steadily since December, 2011, dropping from $23 to $11.37 in less than a year. That hasn't stopped EA exec, Peter Moore, from offering his opinion on Zynga's plunging share value.

"To use, if you will, an Olympic analogy, we're competing in the decathlon and if we miss in one event, we've got nine others we can make up on," he told Bloomberg. " Zynga is running a marathon. They just hit the wall and dropped to their knees."

Zynga is struggling to keep its stock prices above the $2.50 mark as social gaming profits fall across the board. A number of Zynga insiders, including CEO Markus Pincus, sold portions of their holdings for millions of dollars shortly before the share prices plummeted, leading to accusations of insider trading. Zynga employees, on the other hand, can't sell their shares until August 16th, when they will, if the current trend continues, be worth marginally less than a bag of Skittles.

While EA has a lot of money invested in the ailing social gaming market, the company has lots of fingers in lots of different pies. Despite recently agreeing to give up its stranglehold on American football licenses, EA's sports games are still almost guaranteed money spinners. The company also has a lot of money invested in mobile gaming, which according to Moore, "is where [EA] is seeing the real growth."
Click to expand...

I can bet EA is going to buy off Zynga. I can just feel it. With them also facing another lawsuit for insider trading, Zynga is fucked.
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
BrokenEchelon said:
There's a difference between making a game in the same genre and just flat out copy-pasting an entire title.

Jesus Christ, I'm defending EA.
Click to expand...

ToR is pretty much WoW in space. Or at least what WoW was 3-4 years ago. While obviously not a straight rip like Zynga it's a lot more than just a game "in the same genre".
 
B

BrokenEchelon

Banned
Derrick01 said:
ToR is pretty much WoW in space. Or at least what WoW was 3-4 years ago. While obviously not a straight rip like Zynga it's a lot more than just a game "in the same genre".
Click to expand...

I was hoping you'd bring up World of WarCraft.

EverQuest_Coverart.png


WoW owes a great deal to that game.

BioWare obviously copied the basic formula of the "first-generation" style MMO which EverQuest and Ultima created, but it also offered different features and design systems that WoW didn't.
 
J

jman2050

Member
Castor Krieg said:
But is it illegal? It is plagiarism, but again - is it illegal? We will see, I for one do not think copyright is involved, because there is no copyright to begin with.
Click to expand...

It's difficult to say, Capcom lost vs Data East because it was determined you can't copyright game mechanics and visual cues that are inherent to the genre in question (in that case fighting games), but I wonder in this case whether EA can claim that the specific detailed implementations are similar enough in function and form that it counts as infringement.

Either way I'll be very interested to see where this goes.
 
C

cpp_is_king

Member
Derrick01 said:
ToR is pretty much WoW in space. Or at least what WoW was 3-4 years ago. While obviously not a straight rip like Zynga it's a lot more than just a game "in the same genre".
Click to expand...

So basically you're calling out EA, even though the similarities between ToR and WoW are no more than the similiarities between:

Practically any two RTS games
Practically any two FPS games
Practically any two side scrollers
Practically any two fighting games
Practically any two JRPGs

Do I need to keep going? Seriously, take off the jade glasses for a second, when people who already hate EA are telling you that your criticism is unjustified, you know you've probably fallen off the hate cliff and landed in the 9th circle of the looney bin.
 
K

kollapse

Neo Member
I think it's important for everyone to remember that copyright protects specifically the expression of an idea, and not the idea itself. It's for that reason that it may be a difficult battle for EA, despite the similarities in game design between the two products; there has to be a demonstrable copying of an expression of an idea for copyright infringement to have taken place.

Potential confusion in the marketplace is a matter that surrounds trademark infringement, rather than copyright infringement specifically.

Note: I have limited experience in American law, so of any of this doesn't hold up in America please feel free to correct me. It's my understanding however that these are pretty basic distinctions across all common law jurisdictions.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Derrick01 said:
ToR is pretty much WoW in space. Or at least what WoW was 3-4 years ago. While obviously not a straight rip like Zynga it's a lot more than just a game "in the same genre".
Click to expand...

Maybe i would agree with you if we were playing SWTOR as orcs, trolls, undeads, dwarves, etc. in a fantasy world filled with demons, dragons, gods and magic... but no. Beside, WoW in space is basically the Burning Crusade expansion.

And other stuff people already mentioned.
 
D

Dambrosi

Banned
"And so, the Hero learned to accept the power of Darkness - which was not evil, for there is evil in the brightness of the noonday sun - and to use it as a shield against Zynga's copyright infringements."

At least, I think that's how it went...?

:p
 
J

JehutyRunner

Banned
I tweeted this, but I feel it's worth reiterating. The term "crashing and burning" couldn't seem more appropriate right now for Zynga, it seems.
 
I

I Stalk Alone

Member
EA Will not win this as it might set a precedence in the gaming arena the likes that we have not seen. If EA wins then you can bet other companies whose ideas have been stolen or copied in games (dota for example) will have nothing to stop them from doing the same thing with litigation and quashing innovation (not invention) because a game mechanic or style is now owned by one company.

I do not like zyngas practices and the way to stop them is by not buying into their offerings, but if people want to buy their product instead of ea's then so be it. The consumer has spoken.
 
R

rozay

Banned
cpp_is_king said:
So basically you're calling out EA, even though the similarities between ToR and WoW are no more than the similiarities between:

Practically any two RTS games
Practically any two FPS games
Practically any two side scrollers
Practically any two fighting games
Practically any two JRPGs

Do I need to keep going? Seriously, take off the jade glasses for a second, when people who already hate EA are telling you that your criticism is unjustified, you know you've probably fallen off the hate cliff and landed in the 9th circle of the looney bin.
Click to expand...
haha

I can root for EA in this case.
 
D

DSix

Banned
Between that and the Edge case, EA's lawyers are really doing good for the industry.

Yeah, that's a pretty strange thing to say.
 
C

cpp_is_king

Member
inky said:
This is what, the 4th/5th game they've been accused of stealing now?

Shameless™
Click to expand...

The best part is when they sued that other company (company X) for stealing their game, and then X responded by pointing out that the game Zynga claims X stole from them was in fact previously stolen by Zynga from company Y.

I don't remember X and Y, but I wish I knew what came out of that whole thing. Was a little hilarious.
 
Auto_aim1

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
Old? Zynga responded.

Zynga general counsel Reggie Davis responded with the following statement sent to Game Informer:

We are committed to creating the most fun, innovative, social and engaging games in every major genre that our players enjoy.The Ville is the newest game in our ‘ville’ franchise – it builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games dating back to YoVille and continuing through CityVille and CastleVille, and introduces a number of new social features and game mechanics not seen in social games today.

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.
Click to expand...

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...s-suing-zynga-for-copyright-infringement.aspx
 
N

Nosgoroth

Member
This is like when Bowser actually can't any more of the heinous crap of the new big bad and switches sides to help you kick his ass.

Go, Bowser! You rock, Bowser! We'll go back to hating you when you kidnap Peach again.
 
ElRenoRaven

ElRenoRaven

Member
While I hate EA I hate thieving assholes who copy other companies work more. So I say Kick their ass EA. You really can't get any more blatant then Zynga is with this one.
 
J

jman2050

Member
Nosgoroth said:
This is like when Bowser actually can't any more of the heinous crap of the new big bad and switches sides to help you kick his ass.

Go, Bowser! You rock, Bowser! We'll go back to hating you when you kidnap Peach again.
Click to expand...

So Zynga is Smithy?

That... fits way way too well.

Also Zynga responds

“We are committed to creating the most fun, innovative, social and engaging games in every major genre that our players enjoy. The Ville is the newest game in our ‘ville’ franchise – it builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games dating back to YoVille and continuing through CityVille and CastleVille, and introduces a number of new social features and game mechanics not seen in social games today.

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.”
Click to expand...
They have balls, I'll give em that much.

Edit: Whoops, didn't see the post above me.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Nosgoroth said:
This is like when Bowser actually can't any more of the heinous crap of the new big bad and switches sides to help you kick his ass.

Go, Bowser! You rock, Bowser! We'll go back to hating you when you kidnap Peach again.
Click to expand...

But...we love the fact that Bowser kidnap Peach since it gives us new Mario games.
 
F

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
Dem Zyngas said:
It’s also ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga’s CityVille game.
Click to expand...
You cant make this up. XD
 
C

Cat Party

Member
"Cloning" has been part of game development since the early days. Zynga doesn't clone. They copy. I think EA did a good job selecting these two games as the basis for the lawsuit. And they picked a great time to do it as well.
 
G

GlassBox

Banned
What is so bothersome about Zynga is that their entire game design philosophy boils down to "lets build games around copying stuff from other successful games, but monetize every aspect of it so we can prey on consumers"

Nothing remotely in that philosophy that deals with "hey, maybe we should design fun games?"

I wish there was an anonymous survey done for the employees of Zynga asking them if they enjoy making the games they do. If they are being honest, I doubt many of them would say yes. The majority of them only work there because Zynga was the only developer in the San Francisco area that was hiring in bulk while every other company cut or closed.
 
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