Blizzard is suing a company for blatantly ripping off 'Overwatch'

There's a Chinese mobile game called Heroes of Warfare, which takes as much inspiration as possible from Blizzard Entertainment's hit game Overwatch. A little too much inspiration for Blizzard's liking.

Blizzard and its Chinese partner NetEase are suing Heroes of Warfare's creators, 4399, for infringing on its intellectual property, Japanese news site PC Watch reported today. Blizzard claims that 4399's Heroes of Warfare and another game that's already been shut down is too similar to Overwatch, and is calling for a take down.

Just take a look through this gameplay video of Heroes of Warfare and you'll see what Blizzard is getting at:

Many of the playable characters in Heroes of Warfare look and play similarly to the heroes in Overwatch, the maps are nearly identical to Overwatch maps, and the heads-up display showing scores, kills, and health is basically the same as Overwatch's.

As is common practice for intellectual property infringement lawsuits, Blizzard is asking for 4399 to cease production of its copycat games, for monetary compensation for damages, and that Heroes of Warfare be removed from iOS and Android app stores.

This isn't the first time a game developer has copied Overwatch's aesthetics and gameplay approaches. A different Chinese mobile game called Hero Mission did the exact same thing earlier this year. In fact, Hero Mission and Heroes of Warfare are pretty hard to tell apart.

Also, sidenote to all game developers ripping off existing games: Try to come up with better, less-generic names than Heroes of Warfare. What does that even mean?

H/T Kotaku