EA vs Zynga

[KingOfSentinels]

EA has announced it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of its Maxis Label against Zynga, for allegedly infringing EA's copyrights to its Facebook game, The Sims Social.

In the complaint, which was filed in California today, EA claims that in Zynga's recently-released Facebook game The Ville It has "wilfully and intentionally copied and misappropriated the original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social in a violation of U.S. copyright laws."

Earlier this week EA broke its company-wide policy of not discussing Zynga in public, with one of the publisher's key executives describing the Facebook games giant as "on its knees".

Peter Moore, the chief operating officer at EA, used the Olympics analogy to describe Zynga's share price performance, which has suffered a dismal three months on Wall Street as its value sits under $3 per share.

Zynga has previously been accused of copying rival games Tiny Tower and Bingo Blitz.

...

"This is a case of principle. 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."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ver-sims-copy/

What is this black magic, EA are the good guys?!

Zynga's copying of other games is so blatant it's ridiculous, but the companies who are on the recieving end of it never really do anything about it, they're small and Zynga is huge so they tend to just be a bit bitchy but leave it there; enter EA and their armada of lawyers! Zynga will be bricking themselves and rightfully so, especially since they're in a pretty bad financial situation right now.

EA might and probably do have ulterior motives for doing this, knocking out the competition and all that, but we can just ignore that bit, I'm backing them all the way.

[Alucard]

I'll be backing EA in this one too.

[Escaflowne2001]

Zynga is a sinking ship.

[Kiuju2k]

I feel for their staff who may not want to do these but have to in order to eat.

[Reality]

I agree. More so when you want to try better and take more pride in your work but doing these tactics at the direction of your bosses is the only way to keep yourself employed.

[Northeastmonk]

I saw the video of Zynga not doing so hot on CNN. Which showcased their entire staff department and the ping pong table and nifty trinkets which they all seem to have at the office to boost self morale.

I get tired of this social phenom. Its full of flash video games, annoying trends, and it doesn't belong in the business industry. I wouldn't pay for any stock in Facebook. I'd rather invest for another lousy trend that will soon fail.


http://money.cnn.com/video/investing...ynga.cnnmoney/

Its all a fad. I personally don't think it will be as popular in the future. Its like saying Minecraft and Farmville helped shaped gaming. No it didn't and whoever thinks so doesn't belong in the industry.

There's also a difference in bashing on EA from a fan stand point to bashing on them as a business in all. I personally like EA Games as a fan and I wouldn't infringe on their business ethics nor any other video game publisher/developer. I think its safe to assume they can make good and even great products and it was their copyrighted IP.

Gamers who follow socially accepted media are always like... "Hey this has some parts of game A in it, but its something completely different" and then go on to bash Game A because its not their new fresh socially accepted game B. Which is why I was on the fence about phone games and ipad games. It just seems like they want to cut the person who knows the industry.

[eastx]

Today's Penny Arcade makes good sport of this:

[Reality]

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/08/zy...ppert-resigns/

Zynga's chief operations officer John Schappert has resigned, according to Fortune. This announcement comes just barely one week after Schappert's responsibilities at the developer were revised to no longer include the oversight of game development. Schappert's departure is effective immediately.

"John has made significant contributions to the games industry throughout his career and we appreciate all that he has done for Zynga," CEO Mark Pincus told Fortune. "John leaves as a friend of the company and we wish him all the best."

Prior to working at Zynga, Schappert served as Corporate Vice President of Live at Microsoft, as well as COO of Electronic Arts -- a company that happens to be suing Zynga as we speak.

Oooooh now it makes sense. He worked at Microsoft and EA. The two most orignal companies in the world.

[CoS_Ethan]

Originally Posted by Reality

Oooooh now it makes sense. He worked at Microsoft and EA. The two most orignal companies in the world.

I smell sarcasm in this sentence...