We reported yesterday that League of Legends very own Riot Games filed a lawsuit against a Chinese mobile developer for copyright infringement. Shanghai Moonton Technology has a popular mobile MOBA by the name of Mobile Legends, and Riot thinks that it’s a pretty blatant rip-off of League of Legends. From character design, to monster design, to stages, Riot believes that Moonton is profiting off of Riot’s designs. Moonton, as you might have predicted, think that Riot is full of it.
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In an official statement on its Facebook page, Moonton had the following to say:
“Recently, some media have published negative and unreal reports against Mobile Legends. Here is the statement of Moonton
“Mobile Legends is a MOBA game that is developed by Moonton independently, and its copyright has already been registered and protected in multiple countries all over the world. Moonton has independent intellectual property rights.
“Mobile Legends and all the users will not be affected by these unreal reports and we will keep providing the best gameplay experience to players all over the world.
“Meanwhile, for some media and competitors who have spread the unreal information and rumors against us, we reserve the right to protect ourselves and pursue legal actions.”
We Don’t Think This Is Going to End Well
This doesn’t seem like the type of story that has a happy ending. If you ask us, Moonton is digging its own grave using words like “we reserve the right to protect ourselves and pursue legal actions.” Yikes, was that a threat?
Was that a threat against Riot Games, whose game Moonton is very clearly and openly copying in multiple ways? Was that a threat from a small Chinese developer against Riot Games, which is owned by Tencent, which happens to be based in China, and also happens to be the most profitable gaming company in the entire world? Tencent, we’ll remind you, also has its own mobile MOBA, Honor of Kings, which is incredibly popular and actually rips off League of Legends legally. Honor of Kings is meant to be the mobile LoL, and we don’t think that Tencent will take kindly to another company ripping off its game to try to occupy that same space.
But what do you guys think? Is Mobile Legends a blatant rip-off, or is Riot going too far to protect designs and gameplay mechanics that are generic enough to belong to anyone? Are the two designs different enough to be considered unique, or is Moonton in for a seriously painful wakeup call sometime soon?
Basically, who’s going to win: Moonton or Riot? Place you bet in the poll below, and then we’ll see how it turns out.
