Electronic Arts, Social Games | featured news

Zynga has countered a copyright-infringement lawsuit from Electronic Arts with its own allegations that EA sought a potentially illegal agreement to avoid poaching each others' employees.

Electronic Arts Inc. has sued online game maker Zynga saying that its new game "The Ville" infringes its own game, "The Sims Social." EA said Friday that "The Ville" is "unmistakable" in its similarity to "The Sims Social," which launched more than a year earlier. EA says the games are "largely indistinguishable" to a casual observer.

On Tuesday, PopCap games announced it was being acquired by Electronic Arts, confirming speculation that circled late last month. The deal is valued as high as $1.3 billion in cash and stocks. But the company reportedly also fielded a huge offer from social gaming giant Zynga.