Machine Zone and Ember Entertainment said yesterday that they settled Machine Zone’s copyright lawsuit that accused Ember of copying Game of War: Fire Age, one of the top-grossing titles in mobile gaming history.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In April 2015, Machine Zone alleged in a federal lawsuit that Ember’s original version of Empire Z used Game of War elements.
In a joint statement, the companies said, “Ember used some elements of Game of War: Fire Age in the original version of Empire Z, for which Ember apologizes. Ember has taken steps to remove these elements from the current and any future versions of Empire Z.”
Game of War debuted in July 2013 and has slowly climbed up the top-grossing charts. It has been in the top three for a long time, and it has been downloaded tens of millions of times. Kate Upton, pictured above, starred in a series of Game of War commercials that made the strategy game well-known around the globe.
Ember launched Empire Z in May 2014. The lawsuit alleged that features of Empire Z were only cosmetically different from features of Game of War. The features had different names, but Machine Zone claimed they were the same.