Zynga and EA resolve The Ville copyright case out of court

by James Gilmour 18/2/2013

Zynga and EA have resolved their legal dispute over the similarities between The Ville and The Sims Social, with a US judge dismissing the case "with prejudice".

This court battle, which kicked off last August, began when über-publisher EA accused FarmVille creator Zynga of copyright infringement.

The offending - in EA's eyes - game was Zynga's Facebook-based life sim The Ville, which EA believed bore a striking resemblance to its own mobile management title The Sims Social (see image below).



_{Top: The Ville. Bottom: The Sims Social}

Instead of tucking its tail between its legs and rolling over, however, Zynga responded to the accusation with a countersuit.

In that countersuit, Zynga claimed that not only were EA's claims unfounded, but that the FIFA maker was engaging in "anticompetitive and unlawful business practices" by attempting to prevent Zynga from hiring ex-EA employees.

However, the legal departments of both companies released matching statements on the matter last Friday. They read: "EA and Zynga have resolved their respective claims and have reached a settlement of their litigation in the Northern District of California."

Since the settlement is confidential, we'll just have to guess how the deal went down.

AllThingsD [via IGN]