It's the same thing with the private servers. They're doing it to protect their property by law. Blizzard is in the right to defend their copyright or else they may actually lose ownership of it. Taking Warcraft characters and plopping them in another game not owned by Blizzard without permission is, indeed, copyright infringement. Atrox also is a terrible example because while there's similarities, it is incredibly different. Also putting in a reference to something is not copyright infringement either. Allow me to assist.Ĭhina doesn't own the design of a tiger nor is the culture under copyright protection law. I don't think you understand the difference between intellectual properties and cultural references. What of the content that WoW has in itself? Lots of the world's greatest source of references are in WoW and I don't see those asking Blizzard's for their rights, unless they did before moving on with them. That chinese game might be those cases that the 'copies are so evident from the original game'. They could be, or just hire them to help improve their own games even more. Theses corporativists are getting more and more selfish in some way, in that some homages are seen as flat out harm to their business. I remember a Starcraft-like game, called Atrox, that had all 3 simillar races (Hominian > Terran, Createse > Zerg, Intellion > Protoss), and it was great. Wouldn't China do the same because it's their Intellectual Property? BTW, what about Pandaria expansion, the chinese mounts in the mount shop, or other things. Comment by Cakemix on T15:00:27-05:00ĭunno, it can be a Chinese way to pay homage to one of Blizzard's greatest game of all time. You can fanboy over warcraft all you want, I think this sueing is stupid, and in this case, if the studio of wb still existed, would of and should of sued Blizzard. Warlord Battlecry was not made by an AAA company. You people seem to forget that blizzard is an AAA company. So how can the devs of WB1/2 not sue Blizzard for having a clone of theyr game? Sorry, warcraft II was to old at that time I cant really compare it in artstyle Vs wb1)2000), which both have very similar artstyles. So you tell me, how WC3, which got released in 2002 You are aware that warcraft 3 was the one that changed the warcraft series, right, for what it was percieved as artstyle. Infact warcraft was born from blizz wanting to make a warhammer game and being told no so they used the races and made their own thing. But you can own the artwork, the specific characters, etc. Also yes you can own artwork? You can't own concept like alien orcs invading from another world. You do know that warlords battlecry came out after Warcraft right? The first warlords battlecry was 2000. UNlesss its litterally content created by blizzard, as in, models, assets, and what not, artwork does not belong to blizzard. Wait, so blizzard can sue them, but the makers of warlords battlecry couldnt sue blizzard due to warcraft 3 being a wb3 clone? :o The entire suit can be viewed on, Uploaded by Polygon. Audio cues and sound effects from the Warcraft games were reproduced for the Infringing Game.” Weapons, amulets, and other objects were taken straight from the Warcraft games, without pretense. Blizzard’s suit would go on to allege, “Every monster, creature, animal, and vehicle in the Infringing Game was copied from the Warcraft games. Blizzard goes on to claim that Sina Games has a history of copying other intellectual properties for other games it develops, citing franchises such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, among others.Įven the very icon for the game, Glorious Saga, is blatantly copying the artwork for World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth. In the character selection screen, some characters are even named directly after their original “influences”, Gul’dan, Jaina Proudmoore, and Malfurion being the primary examples.īlizzard is seeking maximum damages on each case of infringement ($150,000 per), as well as any attorney’s fees, which is common in a case like this. In this gameplay video on YouTube by user OGL Gameplays, it is pretty apparent that the character design and nearly every element of the game is influenced by World of Warcraft. On AugBlizzard filed a lawsuit, alleging that Sina Corp’s Game Studio, Sina Games has “almost entirely copied from the Warcraft games and related products” for its title Glorious Saga, a Mobile game.