Riot Games Takes NetEase to Court Over Hyper Front's Alleged Valorant Copyright Infringement

Riot Games has initiated a series of lawsuits against Chinese gaming giant NetEase, accusing its mobile title Hyper Front of violating Valorant's copyright. The lawsuits, filed in the UK, Germany, Brazil, and Singapore, highlight the similarities between the two games in terms of characters, maps, weapons, and other key elements. Originally unveiled in October 2019 as Project A, Valorant entered closed beta in April 2020 and launched on PC in June 2020. Riot Games announced a mobile version of Valorant in June 2021. According to the filing, Hyper Front's development began in March 2020, with an open beta launching in August 2021 under the name Project M, and the full game releasing in January 2022. Riot Games had previously raised concerns with NetEase regarding the similarities between the two games, including the likeness between Valorant's hero Omen and Hyper Front's Nemesis. Although NetEase addressed these concerns by redesigning the character, Riot Games still believes that Hyper Front's hero and other aspects of the game infringe on its rights. In a statement to Polygon, Riot Games' lawyer Dan Nabel said, 'Our creative choices are mirrored in NetEase's game. We do not think that changing the color of a character ability or slightly modifying the visual appearance changes the fact that it is copyright infringement.' NetEase declined to comment on the matter. Riot Games is seeking a court order to shut down Hyper Front and is requesting substantial damages, although no specific figure was provided. The company is currently involved in another ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit against China-based developer Moonton Technology, claiming that its title Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a copy of League of Legends. The latest lawsuit was dismissed by a US court last month, ruling that the dispute should be settled in China.