South Korean cult video game Legend of Mir takes on Chinese copycats
- WeMade CEO Henry Chang has filed 65 lawsuits in China, Singapore and South Korea against Chinese gaming studios over the last three years
- While multinationals have long avoided filing suits against rivals in China, Chang feels Trump’s trade war has raised awareness about intellectual property
In The Legend of Mir, warriors and sorcerers battle creatures from an ancient universe. Now, South Korean studio WeMade’s long-time video game hit is at the centre of a string of legal battles that could serve as a rallying cry for foreign companies harbouring grievances against Chinese rivals.
Over the last three years, WeMade chief executive officer Henry Chang has filed about 65 lawsuits in China, Singapore and South Korea against Chinese gaming studios, attempting to block what he alleges are unlicensed versions of his two-decade-old title.
That makes the 44-year-old one of the few foreign executives audacious enough to challenge a batch of Chinese firms in the world’s largest video game market.
He has already racked up a few victories: In December, a Beijing court ordered Guangzhou-based 37 Interactive Entertainment Technology to stop selling a game allegedly based on Mir. In May, a Singapore-based arbitration court required a unit of China’s Kingnet Network to pay WeMade 468 million yuan (US$68 million) in royalties.
Chang’s crusade provides a window into new challenges facing a US$38 billion video game industry dominated by local behemoths Tencent Holdings and NetEase.