EA: Zynga's Infringement on Sims Social is ''Unmistakable''
EA says the infringement is so severe, it's hard to distinguish Maxis' The Sims Social and Zynga's The Ville with an untrained eye.
Electronic Arts announced on Friday that it has filed a a lawsuit on behalf of its Maxis Label against Zynga Inc. for infringing EA’s copyrights to its Facebook game, The Sims Social.
According to the publisher, the complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on August 3, 2012. It alleges that Zynga has willfully and intentionally “copied and misappropriated the original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social in a violation of U.S. copyright laws" with the launch of The Ville on Facebook.
"The similarities go well beyond any superficial resemblance," said Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label, in a recent blog post. "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."
The Sims Social launched in August 2011, bringing the distinctive Sims universe to Facebook. EA claims that it became an instant hit, rapidly gaining "tens of millions" of users. The Sims Social currently maintains a user base of several million active players on the popular social network alone (the iOS and Android apps are separate). Meanwhile, Zynga's The Ville was introduced in June 2012, and Bradshaw claims the infringement of The Sims Social was "unmistakable to those of us at Maxis" as well as to players and the industry at large.
"This is a case of principle," Bradshaw said. "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," she added.
As of this writing, Zynga has not responded to the lawsuit.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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dormantreign I hate everything about EA, but do agree with this lawsuit. This is an example of crossing the line.Reply -
Inferno1217 Just checked it out and yes it's way too close. I loath EA and they probably deserve this after all the crappy games they put out.Reply -
mharry860 Well duh, I've never seen anything so blatant. The first time I saw "The Ville", I said "Well there's the next lawsuit."Reply -
chewy1963 CaedenVbecause Sim City Social is somehow not a direct copy of Cityville?Reply
Fail on two fronts... first, this article is about Sims Social, NOT Sim City Social. Second, Sim City has been around since the early 90's at least. -
teslacoilftw I heard you can Buy a Tiny Virtual Tissue on The Ville :D Of course there is a cost to itReply -
s3anister teslacoilftwI heard you can Buy a Tiny Virtual Tissue on The Ville Of course there is a cost to itBut can you buy a tiny virtual violin?Reply -
A Bad Day CaedenVbecause Sim City Social is somehow not a direct copy of Cityville?Reply
Cityville has a distinctive different micromanagement. It feels a lot more like managing a communist city than actually running a city.
Sim City Society was EA's attempt at building a new fan base. They not only failed to repeat the success of the original SimCity, but they also pissed off many of the existing fans that thought SCS was a true successor to SC4.