NCSoft sues Kakao Games for allegedly copying its ‘Lineage 2M’ game

NCSoft Corporation has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Kakao Games. The company alleged that the video game subsidiary of the Kakao Group copied its popular online game title, “Lineage 2M.”

NCSoft also included Kakao Game’s subsidiary, XL Games, in the suit that was revealed on Wednesday, April 5. The Seongnam-si-headquartered video game developer and publisher explained that it has found a number of similarities between Kakao Game and XL Game’s “ArcheAge War” game title and its own “Lineage 2M,” a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

"We have found many similarities in the content and system in ArcheAge War, a game released by Kakao Games and XL Games on March 21, with our major title ‘Lineage 2M,’" Korea Joongang Daily quoted NCSoft as saying in a statement. "We have discussed the matter with experts in and outside the company and decided to put forward a suit to protect our intellectual property (IP)."

The game developer further stated, "IP is the fruit of long-term research and development of a company which must be properly protected and we will continue our efforts to protect our IPs."

Kakao Games and XL Games released “ArcheAge War” just last month, and it was the latest addition to the company’s MMORPG title designed for cross-play on both PC and mobile. Upon its release, the companies expect it to become of their biggest games this year.

Kakao Games acquired XL Games in February 2020, and it was the latter that originally developed the ArcheAge franchise in 2013. Since the time the game was released, many players have been pointing out an endless string of similarities with NCSoft’s “Lineage 2M.”

Finally, they said that starting from the interface to content, in-game items, and game system, the resemblances are hard to ignore.