Riot Games is filing lawsuits against publisher NetEase over its 5v5 mobile shooter Hyper Front, which Riot’s lawyers say is a clone of its Valorant shooter. (opens in a new tab) Riot filed lawsuits in the legal systems of several countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and Singapore, seeking to prevent NetEase from distributing Hyper Front and seeking monetary damages.
Valorant has a mobile version of its own in development, though a release date has yet to be announced. Rumors have said 2024, although no evidence of that has been received.
Talking to Polygon (opens in a new tab)a lawyer for Riot Games said that “all of our creative choices are reflected in NetEase’s game” and that “we do not believe that changing a character’s ability color or slightly modifying the visual appearance changes the fact that it is a violation of Copyright”. .”
Riot is no stranger to copyright lawsuits. He has previously sued for alleged clones, scams and imitations of both League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics. Its parent company, Tencent, has also won lawsuits in China over copies of League of Legends. He’s embroiled in one right now, in fact, a US judge just told them to take him to the Chinese court system. (opens in a new tab)
The comparisons Riot makes in the UK lawsuit documents are extensive, including screenshots of maps, characters, weapon skins, and other trinkets. There are even in-game weapon performance and stat comparisons. Riot says that an initial complaint prompted some changes from NetEase, but it didn’t go far enough.
Riot’s lawyers emphasized the global nature of the gaming industry in justifying the various lawsuits in various countries.
Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a somewhat larger and much better-known Chinese media company, and users on social media were quick to accuse Tencent of hypocrisy. Tencent’s Ace Force, for example, was accused of copying Overwatch’s aesthetics and gameplay when it launched in 2019, while Tencent’s geolocation-based mobile game Let’s Hunt Monsters was accused of being a Pokemon Go clone.
The legal outcome here isn’t exactly clear: don’t discount NetEase, though. It is a huge technology company and includes many divisions not only in East Asian countries but recently expanded to Europe and America with the acquisition of Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream.
