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Blizzard sues creator of 'DOTA Legend' while that same studio sues another one

Suing sandwich

Blizzard sues creator of 'DOTA Legend' while that same studio sues another one
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A three-way suing train has arrived in the mobile game scene. Blizzard is suing a Chinese company a couple of days after that same filed a lawsuit against a US company.

Let's break this down.

Chinese studio Lilith Games, creator of Soul Clash, first announced that it's suing American studio uCool. This was on the grounds that its game Heroes Charge is a clone of Soul Clash.

Both games are MOBAs with a fantasy setting. Soul Clash was released in February 2014 and was China’s top-grossing iOS game in May of that year.

Heroes Charge, on the other hand, was released in August 2014. It was supported by a Super Bowl sponsorship and a large ad campaign. It's currently in the 30 top-grossing mobile games in the US and South Korea.

"Heroes Charge is so identical to Soul Clash in the rules, the character set, and even the user interface that we assume it could have been created by decompiling the source code of our original game," said Xinwen Wang, CEO of Lilith Games.

To prove its case, Lilith Games released a comparison screenshot of Souls Clash (top) and Heroes Charge (bottom). It makes for a pretty strong case. Have a look:

Soul Clash vs Heroes Charge

Right, got all that? Good.

Now, as said, a couple of days later, it was found out that Blizzard was suing Lilith Games.

The reason for this is due to Soul Clash being called DOTA Legend in Taiwan. As Blizzard saw it, the use of "DOTA" in a game title is a "violation of copyright laws and trademark laws."

If you weren't familiar, DOTA is copyrighted by Blizzard as it's hugely popular MOBA of that abbreviation (full title being Defense of the Ancients).

So Lilith Games finds itself in the extraordinary position of being sued while suing another company. Legal issues, eh?

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.