Riot Games is taking a front foot to secure their place in the mobile gaming market before the launch of VALORANT mobile by taking a stringent action against an application which allegedly replicates their flagship title, VALORANT.
VALORANT is the FPS game launched by Riot Games in 2020. Its popularity skyrocketed ever since the launch and now, the developers are planning to build a mobile version of it for the largely untapped mobile gaming market.
With the success of League of Legends: Wild Rift, the mobile version of LOL, Riot Games plans to pave a similar path of success for their upcoming title as well. Before the launch of VALORANT Mobile, a certain game called Hyper Front was alleged to be a copy of VALORANT and Riot Games have taken an action on the same.
Riot Games has filed a lawsuit in the UK with claims of NetEase copying their characters, maps, weapons, weapon skins, charms, and even weapon stats designs. The developers have a very upfront stance on this matter.
Speaking about the case, Riot Games lawyer Dan Nabel told Polygon that they are filing lawsuits in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and Singapore.
His statement reads, “All of our creative choices are mirrored in NetEase’s game. 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.’”
If NetEase is found guilty in this case, a hefty sum would be paid to Riot Games for this matter and the overall design of their game called Hyper Front is also expected to change.
