Riot Games sues NetEase for allegedly creating a Valorant clone

According to Polygon, game developer Riot Games sues NetEase for allegedly creating a clone of Valorant with the mobile game Hyper Front.

Dan Nabel, a lawyer representing Riot Games, has said that Hyper Front is a “copy of substantial parts of Valorant.” For Riot Games, there are many similarities seen in both games, such as maps, weapons, characters, and other things.

After Riot’s initial accusations, the studio states in the lawsuit that NetEase did tweak Hyper Front slightly.

“All of our creative choices are mirrored in NetEase’s game,” Nabel informed Polygon. “We don’t think that changing the color of a character 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.’”

Riot Games is suing NetEase for “substantial” damages (Riot did not provide a dollar amount) and asking the courts to order them to shut down Hyper Front. According to Nabel, the company is pursuing the matter in several courts because “copyright is territorial,” with various legal systems around the world. Nabel stated, “We don’t want to rely on one specific market to get this issue fixed. We are a worldwide publisher, just like NetEase. We want them to understand how seriously we take this issue.”

[Source]: Polygon: Riot Games suing NetEase over Valorant ‘copy’ – [Archive] – [Screenshot].