The recently released Hyper Front has drawn many comparisons due to its similarities to the popular Riot Games shooter, Valorant. Could we see Riot take action against them?
Hyper Front is a free-to-play 5v5 mobile shooter that was recently released on July 20. Since it was announced by Chinese developers, NetEase, earlier in 2022, it has grown a following as many think the game could set a good example for the highly-anticipated mobile version of Riot's shooter, Valorant. However, as players have started familiarizing themselves with Hyper Front, many are starting to draw close similarities between both of the games.
As such, the question regarding the possibility of Riot taking action over Hyper Front's striking similarities has been raised. So will that ever be a possibility? Let's try to answer this question.
Are Valorant And Hyper Front The Same?
Valorant is a free-to-play 5v5 hero-based FPS developed by Riot Games. Hyper Front is also a free-to-play 5v5 hero-based FPS game. They both have an amount of lore behind the characters too. That may be a weird coincidence to some but the thing is, this game genre isn't exactly a new concept. The 6v6 competitive game mode in 2007's Team Fortress 2 was probably the first iteration of this concept. We saw other games follow the same 5v5 format such as Blizzard's multiplayer FPS shooter, Overwatch.That being said, Hyper Front and Valorant are not identical in every respect. Still, this doesn't dispel the general uneasiness Hyper Front players have felt as certain characters have abilities that oddly resemble that of Valorant's agents such as Brimstone's Sky Smokes and Reyna's Leer.
The Possibility Of Riot Games Suing Hyper Front
The short and simple answer is no. Hyper Front and Valorant do share their similarities, but they do not share completely identical elements which is the basis necessary for a company to sue another for copyright infringement. More importantly, there has been no official statement from Riot stating their desire to pursue any sort of legal action against Hyper Front.
If you're looking for an example of Riot Games taking action against another game company, look no further than the lawsuit Riot had filed against ByteDance's Montoon. They alleged that Montoon had ripped off characters and promotional materials from Riot's League of Legends and Wild Rift mobile game for use in their own mobile game, Mobile Legends Bang Bang.
The similarities were right down to the weapon designs as shown by the picture above. Champion designs were also allegedly copied as evident in League of Legends' Zac design which was said to be nearly identical to Mobile Legends' Gloo design.
NetEase's History Of "Copying" Other Games
It's worth noting that this isn't the first time NetEase has developed games that have shared similar characteristics with other popular games. For example, 2018's Creative Destruction had a close resemblance to Epic Games' battle royale Fortnite. Additionally, Knives Out and Rules of Survival are two games developed by NetEase that allegedly copied certain aspects of Player Unknown's BattleGrounds (PUBG).
Given this track history, it's no surprise that players believe NetEase "copied" Valorant. However, the future of the legal case is still very much up to debate and certainly not a guaranteed outcome.
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