A Chinese court sided with NetEase in a dispute with Alibaba. He agreed that Alibaba copied 79 elements of the Three Kingdoms Tactics mobile strategy from the Invincible game.
Alibaba must pay NetEase compensation in the amount of ¥50 million ($7.2 million) — this is one of the largest fines related to video games in China. The company will also have to remove all controversial elements from Three Kingdoms Tactics. However, the game itself will remain in stores.
Alibaba said it was going to appeal.
According to the AppMagic service, Three Kingdoms Tactics is Alibaba’s most money-making game. Since its release in 2019, it has earned $1.97 billion. The revenue of Invincible released in 2015 is just under $1 billion.