NetEase- one of the biggest gaming companies in the world after Tencent have announced beta trials for their latest first-person mobile shooter game, Project M. A gameplay video of the game has been surfacing all over the internet, giving rise to controversies calling it a copy of the popular tactical shooter game for PC, Valorant developed by Riot Games. Project M is accused of having features and gameplay concepts strikingly similar to that of Valorant.
Valorant is a popular fps game initially released for PCs, however, the developers are working on the release of a mobile version of the game, the confirmation of which was made early in June 2021. This seems to be the opportunity NetEase has skillfully utilized to stand in competition with its strong rival Tencent, which is a parent company to Riot games.
Project M Vs Valorant
Both the games being heavily identical, has fans wondering if Project M is a copy of the game Valorant. The video widely being shared on the Internet gives a little sneak peek as to what would be the gameplay experience, and it comes to surprise how Project M has most of its features a direct rip-off from the game Valorant. The guns, game sounds, in-game environment, and also the agents seem to be taken out straight from the Riot’s fps game. The skull that appears after every successful kill to resemblance in player characters, NetEase seems to have copy-pasted the entire PC game.
Similar fashions of Sage’s Barrier wall, Sova’s drone, and Brimstone’s tactical smokes can be spotted and among others. Even the spike that’s meant to be diffused in the game’s search and destroy looks like the one in Valorant. The name Project M also seems to be a copied look-alike name taken directly from the Valorant development stage name Project A ( Project Ares) before launch.
Project M to hit the market before Valorant Mobile
It is eminent how NetEase is skillfully using this as a tactic to attract players towards their game before Valorant enters the fps mobile market. The trailer of project M shows gameplay and gunplay along with various abilities the characters have, outlining the major features pasted from the popular PC game.
Valorant, which is a 5vs5 competitive tactical shooter game, was immensely successful following its release in June 2020. The game’s stunning art style and unique gameplay experience helped the game to stand out amongst most fps shooter games. The game is already backed by a huge fan base and so introducing a mobile version of the game will simply give branches to their already huge player base. On the other hand, project M wasn’t celebrated by the players which can be well determined by the number of dislikes the trailer video has received on YouTube. Popular Valorant leaker, ValorLeaks also shared the video on Twitter to bring attention to this ‘Valorant mobile clone’, along with humorous comments.
However, it is to see if NetEase is charged with a lawsuit for obvious reasons, as there is no indication from the Riot games as of now. It is also a question whether the game will survive if it anyhow manages to enter the fps mobile market, considering how Valorant fans have taken Twitter by storm showing detest on how the game is a total clone of the origin game.
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