On the last day of 2021, the developers and operators of mobile idle game Hero Summoner (英雄召唤师) quietly published an apology letter to Lilith Games on Hero Summoner’s official website. Working for MoBai Technology and Ma'ou Network Technology, they have notoriously copied the design of the Lilith Games’ flagship game AFK Arena.
In the letter, these game creators admitted to the similarities between their product and AFK Arena, a casual action card game, in gameplay rules, main interface design, and hero skill design in the early development stage. They confessed that they had infringed the copyrights of Lilith Games and damaged the core interests of the competitor.
Comparison of design: AFK Arena (left) and Hero Summoner (right)
The creators of Hero Summoner also stated that their problematic game has been moved offline and will be redesigned. The work was started two months ago, according to a WeChat announcement. The game studios have reached a settlement on this plagiarism issue, according to the apology letter.
Based in Shanghai, Lilith Games released its first game, Hero Tactics, in 2013 and was officially founded in 2015. It is China's 3rd largest game developer/publisher based on overseas revenue, according to Fandom.
In October last year, Lilith Games stated publicly that they had received massive reports from gamers and would sue the developers behind The Little Racoons 100, or 小浣熊百将传, as well as Hero of Summoner. The Little Racoons 100 was developed by TIKTAALIK.
In an effort to tackle the lingering problems in copyright protection, last June, China has revised the nation’s copyright law. At press time, the other game maker accused of piracy, TIKTAALIK, hasn’t made responses to Lilith Games’ previous complaint.