14 DAY TRIAL // Social game developer Kixeye has launched a countersuit against Zynga, the leader of the current field, linked to its anti-competitive practices, which are hurting the entire genre and lowing the company’s ability to compete.
GamesIndustry.biz is quoting the court documents that say the Kixeye wants to block Zynga from “litigation against Kixeye with the intent to interfere with the competitors’ right to recruit, hire and/or employ Zynga employees or to gain access to Kiexye’s business information.”
Kixeye also wants to block its rival from suing employees under frivolous reasons and to allow its own workers to leave and join a rival company without being harassed.
The developer claims that Zynga is trying to use court action in order to limit its ability to create competing products.
Will Harbin, the chief executive officer of Kixeye, states, “Their illustrious history of using their legal department to exploit and slander competitors that they can’t otherwise out-perform is well documented. We will not stand for it.”
He also claims that his own company will use all the resources required to make sure that Zynga, described as a predatory company, will not get access to sensitive information.
Recently, Zynga has also been targeted by legal action by major publisher Electronic Arts, which has claimed that the social games company used mechanics and assets that were too similar to those present in The Sims Online.
Other companies have also claimed that Zynga based much of its own success on quickly copying their innovations and then making them available to a larger players base.
Zynga is a social game company that saw its best period while Facebook was rising as a platform, with FarmVille still its biggest hit.
At the moment, the popularity of its products is in decline and the shares it has issued have lost much of their value.