In recent events, Riot Games The Chinese video game giant has sued NetEase for copying content from Valorant, a Riot Games original. Valorant is currently a PC-only 5v5 FPS. It was released in July 2020 and has since gained immense popularity in the gaming community with thousands of fans watching Valorant streams at any time of the day.
NetEase currently dominates the Android game market with games like Knives Out. NetEase has released Hyper Front, a 5V5 FPS game for mobile devices in some special markets such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. “Copy of key parts of VALORANT.”
Riot filed the lawsuit in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Singapore. According to the developers, there are many similarities between the two games such as maps, abilities and weapons.
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Riot Games accuses NetEase’s Hyper Front of stealing content from Valorant
This lawsuit from Riot is 162 games long and leaves no stone unturned. It shows a detailed comparison between all characters, maps, user experience, gameplay, skins and weapons. Riot aims to get NetEase to shut down Hyper Front as it’s duplicating Valorant before the major release of Valorant Mobile, which is currently in development and is expected to launch in 2023.
READ MORE: Valorant Mobile Clone Hyperfront by NetEase Games
NetEase has faced several charges for copying content from games. In fact, Krafton also sued NetEase for copying content from PUBG and adding it to Knives Out and Rules of Survival. Dan Nabel, senior director of Riot Games, Polygon:
"We don’t think that changing the color of a character's ability or slightly modifying the visual appearance changes the fact that it’s copyright infringement. It’s like that old saying, ‘You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig' All of our creative choices are mirrored in NetEase’s game"
Dan Nabel also explained why they have filed the case in many courts around the world.
"We don’t want to rely on one particular market to have this issue resolved. NetEase is a global publisher, as are we. We want them to know that we take the matter very seriously.'
Hyper Front gained a lot of attention as it is widely known as the mobile version of Valorant. It has been downloaded millions of times and players have even played in some regional tournaments in the game. If Riot wins this case, NetEase will have to replace or remove the game entirely, and it will also have to pay a hefty sum to the Valorant developers.
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