A lawsuit brought against social gaming studio Zynga by Electronic Arts–which claimed that the studio had copied The Sims Social–has been settled out of court, according to Gamasutra.
An official statement from Zynga received by Gamasutra states that "EA and Zynga have resolved their respective claims and have reached a settlement of their litigation in the Northern District of California."
The suit was brought against Zynga back in 2012. EA claims that The Ville borrowed way more than just a few design choices, saying that the game copied their own in terms of characters, actions, and that they were going to take a stand. After all, the company wasn't the first to feel copied by a Facebook game.
"By calling Zynga out on this illegal practice, we hope to have a secondary effect of protecting the rights of other creative studios who don’t have the resources to protect themselves," said Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of the Maxis label.
While the details of the settlement remain undisclosed, a source close to Zynga says that the company is "pleased" with the decision.
A countersuit by Zynga was also settled out of court. That suit addressed that EA sued only after top executives left EA for Zynga.
