Recently, Ubisoft has taken action against a copy of their popular tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege for the mobile market. However, just a few hours later, the battle was already over – at least temporarily.
What is this copy? In April, the mobile game Area F2 was released for Android and iOS. Players could download the mobile shooter from both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
The game itself looks almost like an exact copy of the popular competitive shooter Rainbow Six Siege. From the selection of characters (Operators) to the weapons and gadgets, everything looks quite identical.
Ubisoft referred to Area F2 as a “hard copy” of Rainbow Six Siege, seeking to benefit from its success. Siege is an important source of revenue for the company and Rainbow Six Siege is among the best shooters of 2020.
There were concerns that players might not recognize the difference between the copy and the “real” Rainbow Six – even though there is no Siege for mobile. This is also supported by the fact that many videos on YouTube and reviews in the stores refer to it as a “mobile Rainbow Six Siege”.
Ubisoft sues, Area F2 disappears – for now
How did Ubisoft sue? To make Area F2 disappear, Ubisoft sued the store operators Google and Apple directly. Prior to this, the company reached out to the two giants and requested that the game be removed from the offerings.
When this did not happen, a lawsuit followed. Presumably, Ubisoft decided on this step because a lawsuit against the developer of Area F2, Ejoy, would have been futile.
Ejoy is based in China, and copyright lawsuits there are usually unsuccessful.
What happened to the game: Since yesterday, May 20, Area F2 has disappeared from both the Play Store and the App Store. On the official Facebook page of the game, the developers posted a statement announcing that they are discontinuing Area F2:
Those who invested money in Area F2 by then should contact Google or Apple to request a refund or reach out to support via Facebook.
At the same time, the developers mentioned that they want to make “improvements to Area F2” to provide players with a better experience. This sounds like they do not want to take the game off the market permanently, but plan to return later.
It seems that the dispute between Ubisoft and Area F2, as well as Google and Apple, is not over yet. What “improvements” Ejoy intends to make has not yet been disclosed – it could be a complete overhaul or small changes. For example, the shooter god shroud finds Rainbow Six Siege too realistic. Whether such a change is enough to avoid being considered a “copy” remains to be seen.
