EA is apparently “standing up for the industry” in regards to its lawsuit against social gaming company Zynga, based on claims of a copyright infringement against its title The Sims Social by Zynga’s game, The Ville.
EA COO Peter Moore told Eurogamer:
“When we looked at The Ville we felt somewhat affronted by what we saw as copyright infringement, we also feel from an industry perspective that a number of these things have happened before related to Zynga, but there’s never been a company that has the wherewithal and the resources to take it to the next level. We do.
So, we’re defending our Maxis studio, and we’re standing up for the industry. The roots of what we do as an industry is creative, from the minds of people who sit there and build storylines and characters and mesh it all together and work hard to do it. You take years to do that. And when you see somebody, quite frankly, take months replicating what you’ve done, you’re upset. We were upset. We were upset for Maxis.”
Now, I can easily see where EA are coming from (you only need to look at the above picture to see the shocking similarities), but I don’t think we need to hear quite so much about the lawsuit. Really, it just feels as though they’re milking it for more supporters than on actual claims. Plus, if EA is supposed to represent the industry as a whole, then gaming is in a very sorry state, it would seem.
And, after all, should we really be interested in these lawsuits? We’ve seen far too many of these this generation, from Nintendo hardware to Sony’s online network, and, of course, the Motorola-Xbox 360 patent dispute that could have easily seen the system banned in the US.
Perhaps that’s the problem. It’s so easy now to claim hundreds of patents. I’m not saying that EA doesn’t have a case here, far from it. But, EA stating that they’re ‘standing up for the industry’? Personally, I think that’s just a step too far.