Zynga released a statement accusing Vostu of copying just about everything that Zynga does, from product features to branding assets to mission statements and even employee benefits. I'm not exactly sure how those last two items can be outrightly copied in a legal sense but hey, Zynga's clearly pissed off!
To quote Zynga "Vostu has brazenly appropriated the copyright-protected aspects of Zynga’s games (as well as almost every other aspect of Zynga’s business) – with scant effort to mask their strategy– and then offered games virtually identical to Zynga’s games to prospective players in the United States and elsewhere."
Apparently the theft goes so deep that certain bugs that have yet to be corrected in Zynga's own games have shown up in Vostu's own games, which would probably stand out like a bloody glove to any informed judge.
Vostu responded to Zynga's outburst, claiming that Zynga's own policies regarding copying existing products has driven them crazy and made them unable to recognize original content for what it is. That sounds like a hollow argument, but Vostu has more venom in their bite!
In their reply, Vostu says "Zynga has been accused of copying so many games that they’ve sadly lost the ability to recognize games like ours that are chock full of original content and have been independently created."
"Zynga’s anti-competitive effort to bully us with a frivolous lawsuit — especially when we have some of the same key investors — is pathetic."
Strong words considering that that Zynga's work isn't suspect at the moment, and more importantly, Zynga provided TechCrunch with video showing pretty clear evidence of the extent of the plagiarism committed by Vostu. It's almost as blatant a theft as the whole Chinese Final Combat reveal.
via pocketgamer
