Playfish vs. Zynga: The never ending copying battle

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Over the past few months, many of you may have noticed that these 2 companies had been rivals.They both are the most succesful and famous gaming companies in Facebook.

But what happens when one of them comes up with a great idea that brings lots of players and money? The other company copies it.

Let's take a look,

Facebook's most played game is FarmVille, from Zynga.



Beautiful game... But, hold on! This game is just a knock-off of another Facebook's game, FarmTown!
Developed by "Slash Key". It was created before FarmVille.



Does it look familiar?

Let's keep going.
Okay, so like a month ago Zynga launched "Café World"



Excellent game, jumped to the top 5 games on Facebook is just a week. Oh! Hold on! I've seen a game like this before! It's an obvious copy of Playfish Restaurant City!



Restaurant City is, in my opinion, way better than Café World.

Another example?
Let's talk about Pet Society, of the most Facebook games as well.
It is developed by Playfish, was created on 08/08/08 and it has lots of fans.



A week ago Zynga launched "PetVille" (Gosh... even the names are familiar)

Ít's basically the same as Pet Society. It has better graphics though. But in some ways, Pet Society is better. What's more, it was Playfish's idea!

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Okay so far we've talked about what games Zynga has copied. It seems like Playfish is not very happy with this, so they started copying Zynga's most succesful games too.

For me it all started when Playfish launched "Country Story", a complete copy of Zynga's FarmVille. But remember, it wasn't Zynga's idea in the first place, it was Slash Key's with Farm Town.

Country Story:


FarmVille:


Moving on...
A few weeks ago Playfish Launched "Poker Rivals"



A copy og Zynga's most succesful game, "Zynga's Poker"



Again, Playfish has not good copying qualities, because as you can see Zynga's game is way better.

And finally, this the an ad I found at the Playfish Official Forum, looking for beta-testers for a new game.
It seems they're launching a copy of Zynga's Mafia Wars.



This is how Mafia Wars looks like,

The graphics are not very good, let's face it. But it is one of Facebook's top games.
But it seems it has already been copied! Too late, Playfish, another company launched "Cosa Nostra".

In conclusion.. it seems this fight will never end. There will be some legal issues, of course.

What do you guys think?

when will thi end wha's the next rip-off game by Zynga PlanetVille Get it Crazy Planets PLanetVille cause I just relised alot of there games ends with ville LOL... BTW did you Zynga was sued for copying Mod wars I think someone on the PF forum told me the hav 22 Acttive Lawsuits and personally Country story is simalar to Farmville but I don't think its a complete copy it's way different in my opion.

P.S. PF logo is blue not pink

The PF logo can be whether blue or pink

And was Zynga sued for copyright infrigement? Didn't know that.

Not be playfish I believe?

Do you know when this fight was first started, by the way ?

Well I think it started when Cafe World was created because I don't think they copied farmville. The game was made... jeeez like 9/27 or 29

FarmVille is a FarmTown copy, I've playing it for 6 months, but it's not a Playfish Game.

Yeah I think it was when they created Café World

I meant that I don't think CS is a copy of FarmVille

Why not? They're about almost the same (farming)

except there's not much of a story