Ubisoft is suing both Google and Apple for not taking down Area F2 over clear copyright infringement.
It’s not an uncommon sight to see games blatantly ripping each other off. Developers big and small often find each other’s ideas valuable and think they can make a game better. That said, sometimes they cross a line into blatant theft of too many ideas and not enough creativity. In a report by Bloomberg, it seems Ubisoft isn’t letting Alibaba’s Area F2 go unpunished.
This Alibaba-developed mobile title was – just from a quick, cursory glance – clearly taking a lot of inspiration from Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six: Seige. The big difference is its platform, though. Whereas R6S can be played across consoles and PCs, Area F2 is exclusive to phones and tablets. Because of its platform and standing on the Google Play and Apple stores, Ubisoft went right for the distributors for not taking it down sooner.
Ubi remains adamant that they are well-aware of what they’re doing and knows they’re violating copyright and in their lawsuit acknowledged that almost every detail came from their title.
“Virtually every aspect of AF2 is copied from R6S, from the operator selection screen to the final scoring screen, and everything in between.”
When reached out to by Kotaku, the Ubisoft had this to say about the ongoing suit.
“Ubisoft and our teams have poured years of talent, creativity and resources into making Rainbow Six Siege the success that it is today. While we are not able to comment on pending litigation, we can confirm that Ubisoft is committed to protecting its intellectual property.”
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Ejoy was acquired by Chinese-operated Alibaba in 2017 in a bid to earn more favor in both the online and mobile gaming markets. Sure enough, it did do just that, but now they’re trouble.
Apple and Google both were told of this infringement by the studio of Assassin’s Creed fame, but have made no measures to take down the app. In a not-so confirmed manner, though, it may just be easier to sue the distributors than the developer. Ejoy, much like Alibaba, is located in China, which has hurdles to jump through when it comes to filing for copyright infringement. If this proves to be successful, there very easily could be a new way to crackdown on clones.
What do you think? Who’s in the right?
