Riot Games sues NetEase for alleged ‘Valorant’ similarities in ‘Hyper Front’

Riot Games has slammed Chinese publisher NetEase with multiple lawsuits, claiming that its mobile FPS Hyper Front copies “substantial parts of Valorant,” including its “characters, maps, weapons, weapon skins, and charms.”

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That’s according to Polygon, who reports that Riot Games has filed suits in the UK, Germany, Brazil and Singapore. While the details of the lawsuits vary in each country due to their differing copyright laws, they all claim that Hyper Front copies from Valorant.

In the lawsuit, Riot points out a number of similarities between the two games, including its characters, maps, weapons, weapon skins, charms and even weapon stats. The company also notes that NetEase did make some alterations following complaints from Riot, when it pointed out the similarities between Valorant hero Omen and Hyper Front’s Nemesis.

While NetEase addressed Riot’s complaints and redesigned the character, Riot Games argues that not only does Nemesis still infringe on their copyright, but so do many other aspects of the game.

“All of our creative choices are mirrored in NetEase’s game,” said Riot Games lawyer Dan Nabe to Polygon. “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.”

Riot is asking the courts to order Hyper Front’s shutdown, and is also seeking “substantial” damages,” though it did not specify an exact figure. Nabel also noted that Riot Games was suing NetEase in multiple countries because “copyright is territorial.”

“We don’t want to rely on one particular market to have this issue resolved,” Nabel told Polygon. “NetEase is a global publisher, as are we. We want them to know that we take the matter very seriously.”

In other gaming news, an indie developer has asked fans not to buy his game, following a dispute with his publisher.

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