According to IGN, VR developer VRWOOD is exploring legal options after claiming HoYoverse’s newly announced Petit Planet has “striking similarities” to its own Little Planet VR game. Little Planet entered early access on November 15, 2023 and officially launched last week, while Petit Planet’s trademark wasn’t filed until October 31, 2024. Both games are free-to-play Animal Crossing-like life sims featuring small planet settings, animal residents, crafting, customization, and separate multiplayer planets. VRWOOD CEO Frank Zhuang stated they’re “disheartened” that a major publisher announced a similar game days after Little Planet’s official launch. The developer claims both games share the same inspiration from The Little Prince story and has plans for PC, console, and mobile releases despite currently being VR-only.
Timing is everything
Here’s the thing that makes this particularly awkward for HoYoverse: the timeline. Little Planet has been publicly available in early access since November 2023 – nearly a full year before HoYoverse even filed their trademark. That’s a pretty substantial head start. And VRWOOD didn’t exactly hide what they were building – the game has been covered by VR press and available on Meta Quest stores for months.
Now, game mechanics aren’t copyrightable, and Animal Crossing-like life sims are hardly novel at this point. But when you’ve got similar names (Little Planet vs Petit Planet), similar settings (small planets), similar multiplayer features (StarNexus vs Galactic Bazaar), AND the same stated inspiration from The Little Prince? That starts to feel less like coincidence and more like someone took some serious notes.
The budget disparity problem
This is basically the classic David vs Goliath story we’ve seen play out in gaming before. VRWOOD is a small VR developer, while HoYoverse is the company behind Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail – titles that generate billions in revenue. When a giant enters your niche with what appears to be a very similar concept, that’s existential threat territory.
And honestly, what’s a small developer supposed to do here? They can’t out-spend HoYoverse on marketing. They can’t match their production values. If Petit Planet launches with similar gameplay but better graphics and HoYoverse’s massive marketing machine behind it, Little Planet could easily get buried. That’s probably why VRWOOD is making noise now – before Petit Planet even launches.
Where this could go
Legal action seems inevitable at this point, but IP cases in gaming are notoriously difficult to win. Game mechanics are fair game – pun intended – and “inspired by” isn’t the same as copyright infringement. Still, the combination of factors here is pretty compelling.
What’s interesting is that VRWOOD specifically mentions protecting their “future plans” for PC, console, and mobile releases. They’re basically saying HoYoverse is beating them to their own roadmap. And given that Petit Planet is announced for PC and mobile, that’s exactly what’s happening.
So will this end in a settlement? A name change? Or just bad PR for HoYoverse? Hard to say, but one thing’s clear: in the crowded life sim market, being first matters. And in this case, VRWOOD was definitely first.
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