Zynga's creative process a 'photocopier' - EA COO

Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore weighed in on his company's suit against social games giant Zynga with a salvo of his own at Gamescom. Moore spoke to Eurogamer at the conference about what led EA to file charges of copyright infringement based on similar Facebook games from the two companies.

He said his company was "affronted" when it saw Zynga's The Ville, which it alleges in the suit is nearly indistinguishable from EA's The Sims Social. "We're defending our Maxis studio, and we're standing up for the industry," Moore said. "The roots of what we do as an industry is creative ... And when you see somebody, quite frankly, take months replicating what [you took years to create], you're upset."

Moore said EA's significant resources allow it to strike a blow against Zynga's allegedly long-standing practice of cribbing game design. He said the company has received several public and private statements of support, and specifically noted indie developer NimbleBit, which felt its iOS game Tiny Tower was infringed upon by Zynga's Dream Heights.

"We're a creative industry, and your tools should be your mind and the digital tools to create the characters. It shouldn't be a photocopier, and that's what we saw there," Moore said.

Zynga previously responded to the suit with an allegation that EA is guilty of similar misappropriation with Sim City Social and Zynga's CityVille. An intellectual property expert said the case will likely be difficult and very costly, and whichever way it goes, "EA is playing with fire."