Riot Games has filed a 5-on-5 lawsuit against publisher NetEase over its mobile shooter Hyper Front. (opens in new tab) Riot is suing in the legal systems of several countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, and Singapore, seeking a halt to NetEase's distribution of Hyper Front and monetary damages.

Valorant is developing its own mobile version, but no release date has yet been announced. Rumors say 2024, but there is no evidence to support this.

In an interview with Polygon (opens in new tab), a lawyer for Riot Games stated that "all of our creative choices are reflected in the NetEase game" and that "changing the color of a character ability or slightly modifying its appearance is a copyright violation I don't think that changes the fact that it is an infringement of copyright."

Riot is no stranger to copyright litigation. It has previously sued League of Legends and its spin-off Teamfight Tactics for alleged cloning, piracy, and counterfeiting. Parent company Tencent has also won a lawsuit in China regarding copying League of Legends. In fact, they are involved in one right now, and a US judge just told them to bring it into the Chinese court system. (Open in new tab)

The comparisons Riot makes in the UK lawsuit documents are extensive, including screenshots of maps, characters, weapon skins, and other trinkets. There are even comparisons of weapon statistics and performance in the game. According to Riot, NetEase prompted some changes in the initial complaint, but not enough.

Riot's attorneys emphasized the global nature of the gaming industry to justify multiple lawsuits across multiple countries.

Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a somewhat larger and far more well-known Chinese media company, and social media users were quick to accuse Tencent of hypocrisy. For example, Tencent-owned Ace Force was accused of copying the aesthetics and gameplay of Overwatch when it launched in 2019, and Tencent's geo-location-based mobile game Let's Hunt Monsters was accused of being a rip-off of Pokemon Go was accused of being a rip-off of "Pokémon Go.

The legal outcome here is very unclear: NetEase is a big tech company, with many divisions not only in East Asian countries, but also in Europe and the US with the recent acquisition of Detroit: Quantic Dream, the developer of Become Human which was acquired by the company.