Ubisoft Sues Google And Apple Over Rainbow Six Siege Clone

[TempestCatto]

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Ubisoft isn’t happy about Area F2, a free-to-play shooter on the Google Play and Apple App Store that appears to be a clone of their successful game, Rainbow Six Siege. Ubisoft is now suing to remove the game from the popular mobile app marketplaces.

Mobile gaming...

 

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Area F2 was created by Ejoy.com, a company that is owned by Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba. Looking at screenshots of the Ejoy.com created Area F2, it isn’t hard to spot many, many similarities between it and R6 Siege.

There's always someone in China who wants to make an illegal clone.

 

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It might seem weird for Ubisoft to sue the store owners and not the actual developer and publisher of Area F2 but as Engadget speculates, it might have to do with where Alibaba and Ejoy.com are located. Suing for copyright infringement in China is challenging and it might be easier for Ubisoft to get the game removed from popular stores like Google Play, which would make it harder for Area F2 to find new players.

You're better off asking China for a Covid-19 vaccine than suing for damages.

 

 

Well it's always a money game, ain't it? The company with the most money, has the best lawyers, and as a result always wins.

 

EDIT: Thanks to @givingtnt for finding the vidi:

 

 

Grape Jelly: https://kotaku.com/ubisoft-sues-google-and-apple-over-rainbow-six-siege-r-1843493191?utm_campaign=Kotaku&utm_content=1589654884&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR01ie4FZFb395Ct1MHGHyNDSmv2RB4d4BON77gFR4q-EqY-9x_8muDe4Sk

 

 

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[lewdicrous]

I can see them settling out of court instead of fighting it.

[TetraSky]

Clones coming out of China? I'm shocked! Shocked I say!

[Sauron]

24 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

Area F2, a free-to-play shooter on the Google Play and Apple App Store that appears to be a clone of their successful game, Rainbow Six Siege.

Actually that sounds kinda appealing. Streisand effect?

[givingtnt]

I checked out the name and this is the first thing that pops up

Literally, you can clearly see how it's a ripoff in the first 20 seconds of footage.
I hope they win.

[MrRavens]

Now I'm always iffy or hesitant on attacking a "clone" or "ripoff", but this...I mean some of the gui designs are not even unique let alone all the other glaring similarities. There was no attempt to be different. Even in the smallest way. If you didn't tell me I would have thought Ubisoft made a mobile Siege game, instead of, "wow there's a game "like" siege on the mobile store, let me check it out." This a yikes from me. Not sure how the law entirely works in situations like this, like where are the lines and loop holes, but guess we'll see.  

[Techstorm970]

Ubisoft has a case, but Google and Apple are the wrong companies to sue.  Sue the goddamn developers, Ubisoft!  You could probably bankrupt them with this lawsuit, anyway!

[dalekphalm]

51 minutes ago, Techstorm970 said:

Ubisoft has a case, but Google and Apple are the wrong companies to sue.  Sue the goddamn developers, Ubisoft!  You could probably bankrupt them with this lawsuit, anyway!

As the OP stated, the devs are from China, and a foreign company suing for copyright infringement is... challenging at best.

 

Suing the platforms is pretty straight forward - more than likely, Apple and Google will simply remove the offending app, and that'll be the end of it.

[williamcll]

How about getting valve to sue every CSGO clone in the world.

 

Or get Bethsada to sue every FPS in the world.

[Shreyas1]

Yeah this is just a blatant ripoff. They couldn't even bother changing the UI lmao.

 

That being said, would this being a mobile game with no ubisoft alternative on that platform be sufficiently enough to determine that its valid? I can't really see if this will make a major impact on ubisoft sales if their game is only on PC/Console and not on mobile

[Eaglerino]

1 hour ago, Shreyas1 said:

Yeah this is just a blatant ripoff. They couldn't even bother changing the UI lmao.

 

That being said, would this being a mobile game with no ubisoft alternative on that platform be sufficiently enough to determine that its valid? I can't really see if this will make a major impact on ubisoft sales if their game is only on PC/Console and not on mobile

really depends how much apple and google want to bend over for china, if it's possible for them to bend over more

[dat_boi_fluff]

2 hours ago, Eaglerino said:

really depends how much apple and google want to bend over for china, if it's possible for them to bend over more

aint that the truth...

[dalekphalm]

17 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

Yeah this is just a blatant ripoff. They couldn't even bother changing the UI lmao.

 

That being said, would this being a mobile game with no ubisoft alternative on that platform be sufficiently enough to determine that its valid? I can't really see if this will make a major impact on ubisoft sales if their game is only on PC/Console and not on mobile

Whether it has an impact on sales is a relatively minor concern. 
 

If they stole assets and outright game design, it’s a pretty slam dunk case. 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

basically homeless was pretty much the first person since the beginning who made the videos about it
 

 

[Shreyas1]

23 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Whether it has an impact on sales is a relatively minor concern. 
 

If they stole assets and outright game design, it’s a pretty slam dunk case. 

Legally, I agree, but morally, my point is that I don't see an issue with it as it doesn't seem Ubisoft is really affected by it

[Bango]

I personally actually enjoy playing the game, so if Ubisoft wins I hope that means that they will make a port of their own instead.

[TempestCatto]

6 minutes ago, Shreyas1 said:

Legally, I agree, but morally, my point is that I don't see an issue with it as it doesn't seem Ubisoft is really affected by it

Ubisoft worked very hard to create such a game. Rainbow Six was all started by Tom Clancy and one could argue it's his work and intellectual property being copied here. Regardless, one company made the game spending potentially millions on it, and continues to improve upon it. Whereas another company is copying assets, sounds, animations, etc all to make a quick buck.

[dalekphalm]

8 minutes ago, Shreyas1 said:

Legally, I agree, but morally, my point is that I don't see an issue with it as it doesn't seem Ubisoft is really affected by it

I disagree strongly. Morally, I have a problem with others stealing work and pretending it’s their own, regardless of whether the original owner is affected by it. 

[Shreyas1]

1 hour ago, TempestCatto said:

Ubisoft worked very hard to create such a game. Rainbow Six was all started by Tom Clancy and one could argue it's his work and intellectual property being copied here. Regardless, one company made the game spending potentially millions on it, and continues to improve upon it. Whereas another company is copying assets, sounds, animations, etc all to make a quick buck.

 

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

I disagree strongly. Morally, I have a problem with others stealing work and pretending it’s their own, regardless of whether the original owner is affected by it. 

Fair points. Still, I wonder that with no similar products in the iOS market, it kinda seems like a loss from the consumer standpoint ( not that the mobile game is necessarily good anyways ).

[Zodiark1593]

20 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

As the OP stated, the devs are from China, and a foreign company suing for copyright infringement is... challenging at best.

 

Suing the platforms is pretty straight forward - more than likely, Apple and Google will simply remove the offending app, and that'll be the end of it.

Did it require filing suit to remove the games? I would think Google and Apple would be fine with removing the offending material of their own accord given the extreme similarities presented. 

[NumLock21]

So basically any game where the player wears a tactical suit and holding a weapon like an assault rifle is a clone of R6S.

[justpoet]

22 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

As the OP stated, the devs are from China, and a foreign company suing for copyright infringement is... challenging at best.

 

Suing the platforms is pretty straight forward - more than likely, Apple and Google will simply remove the offending app, and that'll be the end of it.

That's called a copyright takedown request.  You don't sue a company for that unless they blatantly refuse to do so.  This case should get laughed out of court, and ubisoft told to go sue the chinese company in china, or issue a takedown request.

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

 

Fair points. Still, I wonder that with no similar products in the iOS market, it kinda seems like a loss from the consumer standpoint ( not that the mobile game is necessarily good anyways ).

Loss or not, it’s justified. 
 

If there’s a market opportunity, some company should spend the money to make their own game to fill that void. Potentially very lucrative too. 

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Did it require filing suit to remove the games? I would think Google and Apple would be fine with removing the offending material of their own accord given the extreme similarities presented. 

I rather assumed Ubi already asked them to

remove it. Otherwise, what would be the point of suing them?

15 minutes ago, justpoet said:

That's called a copyright takedown request.  You don't sue a company for that unless they blatantly refuse to do so.  This case should get laughed out of court, and ubisoft told to go sue the chinese company in china, or issue a takedown request.

See above.

 

Granted, if they never asked either platform to take it down, they should go do that.

 

I assume Apple and Google said “prove it” or something to that effect. Could be off the mark here - I didn’t see this information one way or the other in the source. 
 

Besides, let’s say they did sue the company. And let’s say it’s a slam dunk case. But it’s China, and often the courts don’t care and side with the Chinese company over foreign companies. 
 

So what is Ubi supposed to do then?

[justpoet]

From the bloomberg business article on it:

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Alibaba acquired Ejoy in 2017 to increase its presence in online and mobile gaming. Ejoy started promoting Area F2 in the U.S. late last year through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The game became available to the public for download on mobile phones and tablets last month, according to the complaint.

 

Ubisoft said it has notified Apple and Google that Area F2 is infringing its copyrights but the companies have refused to remove the game from the Google Play and Apple App stores.

So, while we can see this is essentially the same game.  Ejoy is Alibaba, which is a recognizable and international entity, even traded on the stock markets…not some tiny fly by night clone maker.  The takedown request was submitted, but unlike youtube who takes anything down without any proof, Apple/Google likely asked Alibaba for proof the IP was theirs, which I'm sure was furnished (probably showing development times, their own game studio and assets, etc).  Which could very easily be seen as "ok, they made it, it isn't just direct IP infringement, we shouldn't be involved" by a distributor.

 

The only appropriate thing for Ubisoft to do here is to sue Ejoy, aka Alibaba, and use that court case verdict as a reason for the takedown request.  THEN they have a case if Apple/Google still refuse.