Blizzard sues Chinese company over ‘blatant Warcraft knock-off’

Blizzard is suing Chinese company Sina Games for alleged infringement of its Warcraft intellectual property.

In a lawsuit filed in California this month (via Polygon), the World of Warcraft maker claims Sina’s PC and mobile game Glorious Saga is a “blatant Warcraft knock-off”.

The suit features several side-by-side comparisons showing similarities between Warcraft’s and Glorious Saga’s characters, and a mobile icon for Glorious Saga “that plainly is intended to look like” the cover of the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth.

“Defendants’ infringement of Blizzard’s copyrights is willful, deliberate, and brazen,” the suit alleges. “Defendants did not just copy a few discrete elements from Blizzard’s Warcraft games; they created a game whose content is almost entirely copied from the Warcraft games and related products.”

It adds: “Every monster, creature, animal, and vehicle in the Infringing Game was copied from the Warcraft games. Weapons, amulets, and other objects were taken straight from the Warcraft games, without pretense. Audio cues and sound effects from the Warcraft games were reproduced for the Infringing Game.”

Blizzard is seeking a court order to stop the infringement, plus damages, attorneys’ fees and the transfer of profits made by Sina Games “in amounts to be proven at trial”.

Shares of Activision Blizzard hit a nine-month high on Tuesday following the release of World of Warcraft Classic.

Launched to coincide with the franchise’s 15th anniversary this year, Classic lets World of Warcraft subscribers experience the early days of Blizzard’s MMO with an authentic “re-creation of the pre-expansion game in its most feature-complete state”.