Riot Games is suing Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s Shanghai-based creator for plagiarizing Wild Rift, the mobile version of League of Legends. Riot has upped the ante on combating copycat mobile games after unveiling a mobile version of the famous MOBA in 2021.
Second Time Around
Riot is suing Moonton for the second time. The Central District Court of California dismissed a case in 2017 due to a jurisdictional issue. Tencent, Riot’s parent firm, then sued the developer’s CEO in China for non-compete agreement violations, and was awarded $2.9 million in 2018.
The Restraints
It may have ended there, but with the debut of Wild Rift in 2021, Moonton apparently provided exclusivity contracts to reward organizations that agreed to compete in MLBB instead of Wild Rift.
MLBB was released on Android and iOS in 2016. It’s similar to the League model, but for mobile devices. It features similar gameplay, a progression system, and marketing campaigns for cosmetics. The smartphone game has quickly acquired popularity and produced over $600 million in revenue since its launch. Despite the fact that Wild Rift was released last year, it still has over 80 million monthly players.