Riot Games sues Chinese gaming major NetEase for copying Valorant

(Image Courtesy: Riot Games)

Riot Games, the American game development and publishing company, is suing Chinese gaming giant NetEase for copying its free-to-play tactical hero shooter, Valorant.

Riot Games, which is known for the popular League of Legends franchise, says that NetEase's Hyper Front, which is a five-on-five mobile shooter is a clone of their game.

According to gaming publication Polygon, the case will be presented in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Singapore. Riot claims that Hyper Front is a "copy of substantial parts of Valorant."

As Polygon notes, Valorant was released in 2020 and currently enjoys a player base of more than 14 million per month. NetEase's Hyper Front was released in 2022 for Android and iOS, and currently has more than one million downloads on the Google Play Store.

Riot says that characters, skins, maps, weapons, weapon skins and even weapon stats have been cloned by Hyper Front.

“All of our creative choices are mirrored in NetEase’s game,” said Dan Nabel, the lawyer for Riot Games.

“We don’t think that changing the colour of a character, ability or slightly modifying the visual appearance change the fact that it’s copyright infringement. It’s like that old saying, ‘You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” added Nabel.

Riot Games wants the courts to shut down Hyper Front and is seeking "substantial damages".