Highlights from EA's lawsuit against Zynga

Earlier today, EA announced it had filed a lawsuit against Zynga over The Ville for what it deemed a "clear violation" of copyright laws. Having reviewed the court documents, here are some of the highlights from EA's claims:

• "As The Sims Social increased in popularity and visibility, Zynga turned to its well- known competitive playbook: "Steal someone else's game. Change its name,"1 then cross- promote the Zynga clone to its extensive user base."

• "Zynga's The Ville, released on June 26, 2012, is an unmistakable copy of EA's The Sims Social. Not only does The Ville blatantly mimic the entire framework and style of gameplay in The Sims Social, but it so closely copies the original, creative expression and unique elements of The Sims Social - i.e., the animation sequences, visual arrangements, characters' motions and actions, and other unique audio-visual elements - that the two games are nearly indistinguishable."

EA v Zynga Complaint Final

• "In 2012, a small developer named Nimblebit publicly accused Zynga's Dream Heights game of copying Nimblebit's Tiny Tower game, and developer Buffalo Studios has alleged that Zynga Bingo is a copy of Buffalo Studios' game Bingo Blitz. The following are comparisons of Nimblebit's Tiny Tower and Zynga's Dream Heights, and Buffalo Studios' Bingo Blitz and Zynga's Zynga Bingo."

• "The character creators of both games not only have a similar look and feel to them, with a blue background, character rotation arrows, and green exit/play buttons, but The Ville even copies the exact same 8 skin tone options from The Sims Social."

• "The skin tones in both games have a corresponding RGB (red-green-blue) value, which is represented visually and numerically. RGB values range from 0 to 255, resulting in more than 16 million different color combinations. As demonstrated in the chart below, The Ville uses the same precise RGB values for its skin tones as does The Sims Social. There is an infinitesimally small chance that the use of the same RGB values for skin tone in The Ville as The Sims Social is mere coincidence."

• "Similarly, Zynga's cloning of The Sims Social is so pervasive that unique, fanciful objects in The Sims Social that players can purchase for their characters' homes are also available in The Ville. For instance, in both games players can purchase for their characters near-identical green yoga mats with white tree designs on the mat."

• "The Ville copies a number of household activities in which the players in The Sims Social engage. For example, to get rid of wildlife around the house and yard in The Sims Social, players can have their characters take pictures of animals. This unique activity is known as collecting "artifacts." The Ville copies it identically."

EA asks that the court serve Zynga with a "preliminary and/or permanent injunction" from violating EA's rights under the copyright act, along with unspecified damages and EA's attorneys' fees.