Lawsuit Just 2 Weeks After Release... What Does 'ArcheAge War' Resemble in Lineage?

ArcheAge War Character Image

NCSoft has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Kakao Games and XL Games. The claim is that the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) ‘ArcheAge War,’ released by Kakao Games last month, copied ‘Lineage 2M.’

NC targets the ‘Father of Lineage’

On the 5th, NC announced that it had filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Court against Kakao Games and XL Games for copyright infringement and unfair competition. It stated that ArcheAge War had copied numerous contents and systems from Lineage 2M.

ArcheAge War, released on the 21st of last month, has been said by gamers to resemble Lineage 2M. Specifically, the user interface (UI), weapon enhancement system, collection completion, and doll drawing are said to be similar to those of Lineage 2M. These are characteristics seen in ‘Lineage-like’ games that imitate the features of the Lineage series, but ArcheAge War is said to have a strong similarity.

Particularly, the plagiarism controversy draws attention because the company that developed ArcheAge War is XL Games. The CEO of XL Games is Song Jae-kyung, known as the ‘Father of Lineage.’ He is the person who created Lineage, the success story of NC in 1998. This means he knows the key elements of Lineage better than anyone else.

NC’s direct targeting of CEO Song is interpreted as a determination not to tolerate further infringement of the Lineage intellectual property (IP). An NC official said, “IP is the result of long-term research and development (R&D) and is a core asset of a company that must be properly protected.”

Lineage2M Character Appearance

It is not easy to judge game plagiarism disputes

This is not the first time NC has filed a lawsuit citing copyright infringement. In 2021, NC filed a lawsuit against Webzen. They found that many contents and systems in Webzen’s 2020 release ‘R2M’ imitated ‘Lineage M.’

This lawsuit is still ongoing after two years. Although the trial was delayed during the COVID-19 period, it is difficult to determine whether to consider many systems established as standards in the MMORPG genre as plagiarism. The mount system and gacha criticized in ArcheAge War are already widely used in numerous MMORPG games. Also, the court’s limited understanding of games makes it difficult to resolve plagiarism disputes.

In 2016, Netmarble’s subsidiary It’s Games faced a dispute over ‘Aden’ allegedly infringing on the Lineage IP. NC filed a lawsuit, and the two sides settled the dispute through negotiation and mediation after two years.

Kakao Games stated that it has not yet reviewed the contents of the complaint filed by NC and therefore cannot express a specific position. If they respond, it is expected that it will take at least two years or more to reach a conclusion on copyright infringement.