(Yicai) March 28 -- The creator of a map in Eggy Party, a popular mobile game developed by Chinese internet firm NetEase, is suing rival game Dream Star from Tencent Holdings for plagiarism.

The map creator posted a video today on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, claiming that Dream Star has plagiarized maps created for Eggy Party more than once and over a long period. The case is expected to be heard in court in May.

It is not the only case of plagiarism, Eggy Party said in a statement on Weibo today. “We launched a rights defending center early this year to protect content creators’ rights and interests, and nearly 100 content creators have resorted to the center for help,” it noted. “We will engage specialized lawyers to help them.”

Dream Star also released a statement on Weibo the same day, saying that the infringements were personal behaviors among players, and the game operator has removed all the controversial maps after receiving the complaint.

Eggy Party is a casual party game Hangzhou-based NetEase premiered in May 2022. At its core, it allows players to design maps and share them with other players, and numerous professional content creators have signed contracts with NetEase to help develop the game.

Eggy Party had over 500 million players and more than 40 million daily active users during the Spring Festival holiday last month, according to data from NetEase’s 2023 financial report released on Feb. 29.

The company’s profit jumped 45 percent to CNY29.4 billion (USD4.1 billion) last year and its revenue rose 7 percent to CNY103.5 billion, both hitting new record highs, largely thanks to the popularity of Eggy Party.

NetEase’s biggest rival Tencent launched a similar mobile game called Dream Star in December last year, with substantial investment involved.

Tencent’s game business has faced challenges over the past year and its new products had not achieved the expected results, Pony Ma, chairman and chief executive, said on Jan. 29. 

Dream Star came to the market later than its rivals but has social functions that connect with core Tencent specialties, so the Shenzhen-based firm must spare no efforts to promote it, he added.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting