Riot Games Sues NetEase Over Valorant Clone Hyper Front

A report from Polygon claims that Riot Games is currently suing publisher NetEase over its latest mobile game, cutting edge. That’s because Riot Games believes NetEase’s Hyper Front is a mobile clone of its hit 5v5 shooter, Valorant.

According to Riot Games attorney Dan Nabel, the charges will be brought before courts in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany and Singapore. Hyper Front is said to be a “substantial copy of Valorant,” and each lawsuit seeks to address that, though there are some expected differences due to each country’s copyright laws.

At first glance, both Valorant and Hyper Front have similar gameplay experiences. Players choose from a roster of heroes and then enter tactical 5v5 matches, using teamwork and their abilities to try and win. Valorant launches in 2020, and console and mobile ports are said to be in development.

After its release, Valorant’s popularity quickly climbed to the top, with Overwatch pros in some cases abandoning their favorite game. As for Hyper Front, the game launches on mobile in 2022 and is still not currently available in North America. Coincidentally, this is where the headquarters of Riot Games is located.

In the lawsuit, Riot Games detailed to Polygon that similarities between Hyper Front and Valorant can be spotted when looking at characters, maps, weapon stats, and even cosmetics. With a head-to-head comparison of Valorant’s Omen and Hyper Front’s Nemesis, we get an even deeper look at the similarities.

Presumably NetEase did make some tweaks to Hyper Front due to Riot Games’ initial misgivings about the mobile game, which is where the image above comes from. That said, Riot Games says the game still violates Valorant’s copyright.

Dan Nabel told Polygon: “All of our creative choices are reflected in NetEase’s game. We don’t think changing the color of a character’s ability or slightly modifying the visual appearance would change the fact that it infringes copyright.” As the old saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

Riot Games wanted Hyper Front shut down due to the “substantial” damage it caused, and Nabel also pointed out that “copyrights are territorial,” thus taking the issue to multiple courts around the world. “NetEase is a global publisher, and so are we. We want them to know that we take this matter very seriously.”