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The developer of Valorant, Riot Games, is suing a Chinese technology company, NetEase, for infringing the copyright of its popular esports title.
Riot Games claims that the NetEase mobile title, Hyper Front, features similar maps, weapons, characters and charms to its FPS title.
Hyper Front was released earlier this year, and it was not long before players noticed the similarities that the two games shared.
This isn’t NetEase’s first alleged copy of another game, as the company has also been accused of developing titles that are clones of PUBG and Fortnite in the past.
Riot claims that the development of Hyper Front began right after Valorant Project A was revealed worldwide.
Riot Games lawyer Dan Nabel accepts that Hyper Front does has some modifications on the Valorant model, but says it does not exempt NetEase from copyright infringements.
“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” Nabel said, when referring to the minor changes to the colours, maps and character abilities.
Riot has already filed lawsuits in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Singapore in order to stop NetEase from distributing Hyper Front.
The lawsuit includes screenshots of the game’s maps, characters, weapons and other factors that are supposed to infringe on the copyright.
Riot Games has been planning to release a mobile version of Valorant in 2024, which could be another reason as to why the developer is going after Hyper Front so aggressively.
NetEase should be wary of Riot Games, which has not been shy about taking other developers to the courts over potential copyright infringements.
Riot sued Shanghai Moonton, which develops Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, after claiming the company was copying League of Legends.
