NCSoft, developer of the successful Lineage-MMORPGs, is currently suing Kakao Games. They accuse them of having copied Lineage 2M.
At the end of March, the new MMORPG ArcheAge War was released in Korea. It comes from the developer XL Games and is published by Kakao Games.
The similarity to the MMORPG Lineage 2M is said to be so strong that NCSoft is now filing a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
Allegations: Kakao Games is said to have stolen the concept
What kind of games are these? Both ArcheAge War and Lineage 2M are MMORPGs available on PC and mobile. Both focus on PvP and both feature high-quality graphics.
As players have stated, the game system, the user interface, and the weapon enhancement system in ArcheAge War are significantly similar to those in Lineage 2M. Concerns reached a point where NCSoft decided to take a closer look at the matter and consult experts.
“NCSOFT is determined that ArcheAge War has unlawfully copied and plagiarized NCSOFT’s intellectual property beyond the similarity of the genre,” the company writes (via TheKoreaTimes).
Also interesting is that Jake Song, CEO of XL Games, previously worked for 20 years on the original version of Lineage (via MMORPG).
In the video, you can see the trailer for ArcheAge War:
Lineage 2M has changed the genre
Lineage 2M is the mobile version of the popular PC MMORPG Lineage 2, which was released in 2003. It went online in Korea in 2019, and arrived in the West in 2021.
Before the release, NCSoft said: “In the coming years, there will be no game that can compete with Lineage 2.”
With their mobile games, NCSoft has since made significantly more revenue than with their PC games. This allowed the company to save itself from a crisis.
It has achieved its greatest successes in South Korea – it was not as well received in the West. Since then, hardly any PC MMORPGs are being developed in Asia. Developers instead focus on mobile games.
What does Kakao Games say about it? So far, the accused company has not commented on the issue. Neither Kakao Games nor XL Games have published a response to the lawsuit, but one is expected.
Do you think NCSoft’s lawsuit is justified? Did the developers of ArcheAge War really try to create a copy of Lineage 2M? Feel free to write it in the comments here on MeinMMO!
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