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An undesirable old trope about Chinese video game developers has resurfaced.
Some gamers have noticed something odd about FragPunk’s latest map, Toyland. They discovered that it has the same layout as the classic Counter-Strike map, Inferno.
So, Toyland may not look like Inferno, with its completely different themes and context. But when players go through the map, they noticed the resemblance. This goes down to the point that they can use what they knew about the Counter-Strike map playing this FragPunk map.
GabeFollower does not mince words about what he thinks:
A week ago, devs of FragPunk released a new map called Toyland, which is a ONE TO ONE copy of CS2’s Inferno.
I hope Valve considers taking legal action, cause the fact that they’re taking down community’s 100% free passion projects but allowing a huge chinese publisher NetEase to steal their map layout is insane.
This Does Not Look Good For Chinese Game Developers… Again
Back when miHoYo first revealed Genshin Impact, the studio faced extreme accusations of plagiarism. Their first trailer had more than a passing resemblance to some elements in Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
A lot of these criticisms came from their fellow Chinese gamers. The discontent reached a point where one such gamer famously destroyed their PlayStation 4 console in protest of the alleged plagiarism.
Looking back, miHoYo’s developers revealed that the studio was actually hurt by the accusation. This is why they changed direction on Genshin Impact’s development. Today, the common consensus is there are some clear inspirations from Nintendo’s game, but miHoYo sufficiently differentiated their own.
Who Gets To Decide What Is And Isn’t Plagiarism?
NetEase’s Marvel Rivals studio faced accusations that they were an Overwatch ripoff head-on. There is no ignoring that NetEase published Overwatch in China before they made their own hero team shooter to compete against it.
Our question is not rhetorical of course – IP conflicts can be taken to the courts if necessary. But this isn’t a judicial court litigating IP law right now.
The court of public opinion isn’t always going to be fair or reasonable when they make their decisions on who is in the right or not. NetEase may feel that they can deal with such criticisms just fine, but this case may be different.
What matters here is not really whether you are taking after Nintendo, Blizzard, or Valve. The fans seem to be sufficiently outraged that this issue can harm FragPunk’s and Bad Guitar Games’ reputation. We do think NetEase and Bad Guitar Games needs to address this issue soon.
