Electronic Arts Sues Zynga, Says The Ville Is An “Unmistakable Copy” Of The Sims

From the complaint "As demonstrated in the chart below, The Ville uses the same precise RGB values for its skin tones as does The Sims Social. There is aninfinitesimally small chance that the use of the same RGB values for skin tone in The Ville as TheSims Social is mere coincidence."<p>Zynga could have at least tried not to make the copying so obvious.

Zynga is the Samwer Brothers of games.<p>Blatant copying, element-for-element. No derivation from the original, no ethics, no shame. Zynga is a despicable company, and I have absolutely no respect for the company itself or Pincus.

Some of the stuff in the details section is pretty astounding. They've copied things as closely as the wall-height to floor size ratio. I doubt even EA thought much about that, other than selecting a size that they thought looked reasonable, yet Zynga neeeded to put effort into copying it so exactly? Why? If you're going to rip off a game, why put effort into making it so blatant?<p>I understand Zynga even less now.<p>My gut feeling on reading the headline was originally "Well, EA can't complain, Simcity Social was far more a Cityville clone than a continuation of Simcity", but wow, actually looking at the complaint is pretty damning for Zynga.

Ok I'm rooting for EA in this. I think Zynga's been preying on smaller developers for years in this manner. Its about time they went head to head with an 800lb gorilla.

Zynga got its start by blatantly copying another company's game and they haven't stopped since. If there is any justice in this world they will eventually fail horribly and go bankrupt but I am not holding my breath.<p>Up to now they have chosen minnows who couldn't fight back but EA is a whole new ballgame.

So we're gonna side with Zynga on this because it is innovating by bringing The Sims to Facebook and EA is trying to block innovation with IP lawsuits here, right?

Zynga appears to be a serial copycat: <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/tiny-tower-developers-call-out-zynga-for-their-look-alike-game/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/tiny-tower-developers-call-...</a>

From my perspective, a fairy tale ending would be for EA to take Zynga to the cleaners, then cut a check to every independent label that Zynga has copied off in the past, or start some sort of fund for independent game companies. EA are still going to make a few bucks, but it will help the wider community.

This is all very reminiscent of the video game industry of the 80's, where everyone was making largely the same games and trying to figure out where they fit in the marketplace. Some lawsuits like this were successful, and others weren't. It's a tough call, though I tend to side with Zynga here.<p>Copyright on characters, art, text, code, and logos is great. We obviously don't want direct clones. But, Copyright applied to a genre and style of gameplay is ridiculous. We wouldn't have any of the great games we have today if those things were enforceable.

I'm not quite sure how you could mistake The Ville for The Sims. Besides both games being set in a buildable house with interactive objects, the games are largely completely different. From what I can tell, It doesn't even simulate people.<p>Imagine if in the 90's the makers of Dune 2 decided to sue everyone who made a game which looked like their RTS. I don't think Warcraft would have stood a chance!

Thinking about this a little more in-depth now I actually can't believe that EA hasn't filed suit earlier. Maybe they were waiting and building a stronger case? Sim City was the definitive game of the late 90s - early 2000s, CityVille is a direct rip. Now with The Ville they are ripping off even more EA products.<p>By no means do I like the direction EA has gone in the past few years, they are very poorly regarded game company with bad leadership, but their IP is blatantly being ripped off.<p>I'm glad they're fighting back and if this goes to a jury trial, which I certainly hope it does, Zynga will be done. However, I think Zynga will most likely be taken off the NASDAQ long before a trial, their assets liquidated and the company will file for bankruptcy protection.<p>It's a shame so many investors, VCs, and etc. invest in companies like Zynga, but they're cashing out so it's a sound investment for them.

EA knows this type of litigation is probably a waste of time, in terms of shutting down a particular game. But, it is probably at least partially a PR stunt to drive down Zynga's flailing stock price and hurt the long term outside capital outlook for Zynga. Smart move EA.

Zynga has been orienting its lawyers toward this eventuality as long as EA has been waiting for them to step into their trap.

Here's the trailer for The Ville: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXX6XvGBj4w" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXX6XvGBj4w</a><p>It definitely has a 'Sims' vibe to it.

Between choosing EA vs Zynga, I'll choose to side with the Lawyers on this one.<p>:D

Without-a-doubt Zynga is at fault here. Those who know the way Zynga works know this was intentional, you only have to look back on the plethora of allegations against Zynga about copying other people's games and Facebookatising them to make money. As much as I loathe EA these days, nobody should have their hard earned work ripped off like that, I hope Zynga pays dearly for this. The RGB skin colour argument alone will be the end of them.

Whoever wins, we lose.<p>Seriously. A shitty company suing a shitty company using a shitty law.<p>It would be impossible for me to muster any less care about these two.

I'm not sure who to root for in this case...

Actually I just realized they can claim prior art. Zynga have been ripping off other games for so long without consequences that they can now claim this process is prior art...

Wonder if real life counts as prior art.

I think EA should also sue Zynga for its CityVille's resemblance to SimCity.

I wonder if this is EA's (aggressive) opening to a Zynga acquisition.

I feel like Coke could probably make the same argument about Pepsi. There are plenty of examples of very similar products competing with one another in today's marketplace.<p>It seems like EA winning this could lead to a lot of anti-competitive activity down the line.