The US based social games maker Zynga has countersued rival gaming firm Electronic Arts (EA) claiming the EA violated a deal between the two which limited Zynga’s hiring of employees from the other company.
The current lawsuit is in response to EA Sport’s lawsuit filed in August in a San Francisco federal court, in which Zynga rejected its accusation of infringing key elements of EA’s popular ‘The Sims Social’ game for Zynga’s own title, ‘The Ville’.
Zynga reported in its filing as:"The truth is that despite years of trying to compete, and spending more than a billion dollars on acquisitions, EA has not been able to successfully compete in the social gaming space and was losing talent, particularly to social gaming leader Zynga."
Zynga also countersued EA by requesting an order from federal judge to bar EA from aggressive litigation and intrusive with its hiring.
Zynga general counsel Reggie Davis said the company has responded to EA’s claims, which it believes havs no merit.
"We also filed a counterclaim which addresses actions by EA we believe to be anticompetitive and unlawful business practices, including legal threats and demands for no-hire agreements," Davis said.
EA, in its earlier copyright case against Zynga said that the two senior executives who left for Zynga had access to design, development, and strategic information about the social network game "The Sims Social".
EA spokesman John Reseburg said the move is aimed at diverting attention from Zynga’s persistent plagiarism of other artists and studios.
"Zynga would be better served trying to hold onto the shrinking number of employees they’ve got, rather than suing to acquire more," Reseburg said.
