FBI arrests former Game of War developer for threatening to distribute trade secrets

Don’t mess with mobile game developers. They’ve got the Federal Bureau of Investigations on their side.

A former developer at studio Machine Zone, which is best known for producing the Clash of Clans-like Game of War, was taken into custody by the FBI earlier this week, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal (via Gamasutra). The feds picked up Jing Zeng as he was trying to hop on a plane to China from San Francisco, according to the Bay City News Service. Machine Zone filed a complaint against Zeng with the FBI earlier this year. The studio claims that Zeng downloaded player data and was trying to use that as leverage in negotiations with the company to get himself a larger severance package. The developer now faces charges of trying to steal trade secrets.