[Gaming] Fight! Fight! Fight!
- Thread starter Gryfter
- Start date
- Status
EA will crush Zynga... therefore I don't care...
Damn you to hell EA
Damn you to hell EA
I'd guess EA will win, too...But either way this turns out, it could be interesting/good for the gaming industry. Either Zynga's business practices might no longer be tolerated, or a LOT of copyright laws as they pertain to games will have to be relooked.
That aside - EA blatantly copies games of others too, so....Yeah.
That aside - EA blatantly copies games of others too, so....Yeah.
The irony of Zynga buying up/bullying smaller developers is not lost on me.
It will be very interesting to watch the court determine what copyright covers in this case and what it does not. Scrabble shut down Scrabulous, but apparently there are enough differences between words with friends and scrabble that scrabble doesn't believe a lawsuit is worthwhile.
On the one hand, if this case goes totally in EA's favor, it means that all the tower defense games could come under copyright violation to blizzard, or possibly atari, depending on who you think got closest to what today's tower defense games look like.
If it goes totally in Zynga's favor, then we're going to end up with clones upon clones.
I suspect that what will eventually happen is that during the process of the lawsuit EA will be forced to make very specific claims, some of them will be upheld, and others thrown out.
Generally speaking game mechanics cannot be copyrighted or patented. Specific text in rules can be, and there are many other aspects of the complete game that can be copyrighted and/or patented, but not game mechanics.
Take monopoly. As long as you change the number of properties, the names, the visual design, the size of the board, and a few other things (and of course don't use any artwork or text) then you can sell a realestate/rental/services game where players move around the board according to random dice throw and either buy properties, pay other players, or rest at their own properties.
So the most likely outcome is that both companies will spend a lot of time and money, and Zynga will make a few changes to their game.
The second most likely outcome is Zynga will simply settle relatively early on in order to avoid draining their coffers simply fighting EA in a protracted lawsuit (which is EA's best option, obviously hinted at in the "we are big and powerful enough to bully them" note).
It is very unlikely that Zynga will simply win without having to change anything, but either way they're going to be spending a lot of money.
On the one hand, if this case goes totally in EA's favor, it means that all the tower defense games could come under copyright violation to blizzard, or possibly atari, depending on who you think got closest to what today's tower defense games look like.
If it goes totally in Zynga's favor, then we're going to end up with clones upon clones.
I suspect that what will eventually happen is that during the process of the lawsuit EA will be forced to make very specific claims, some of them will be upheld, and others thrown out.
Generally speaking game mechanics cannot be copyrighted or patented. Specific text in rules can be, and there are many other aspects of the complete game that can be copyrighted and/or patented, but not game mechanics.
Take monopoly. As long as you change the number of properties, the names, the visual design, the size of the board, and a few other things (and of course don't use any artwork or text) then you can sell a realestate/rental/services game where players move around the board according to random dice throw and either buy properties, pay other players, or rest at their own properties.
So the most likely outcome is that both companies will spend a lot of time and money, and Zynga will make a few changes to their game.
The second most likely outcome is Zynga will simply settle relatively early on in order to avoid draining their coffers simply fighting EA in a protracted lawsuit (which is EA's best option, obviously hinted at in the "we are big and powerful enough to bully them" note).
It is very unlikely that Zynga will simply win without having to change anything, but either way they're going to be spending a lot of money.
- Status