• August 3, 2012

Electronic Arts has filed suit against Zynga, Inc, alleging that the social gaming company’s newly released “The Ville” “willfully and intentionally” copied elements of its own Facebook-based social game, “The Sims Social.”

In a blog item posted on EA’s Web site, Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of EA’s Maxis label, says: “The similarities go well beyond any superficial resemblance. Zynga’s design choices, animations, visual arrangements and character motions and actions have been directly lifted from The Sims Social.”

The post goes on to say that the two games are virtually indistinguishable to the uninitiated observer and that “scores” of media and bloggers have commented on the similarity.

“This is a case of principle. Maxis isn’t the first studio to claim that Zynga copied its creative product,” Bradshaw writes. “But we are the studio that has the financial and corporate resources to stand up and do something about it.”