Electronic Arts announced today that it is suing Zynga for copyright infringement, alleging that Zynga's recently released Facebook game The Ville copied EA's The Sims Social.

Electronic Arts announced today that it is suing Zynga for copyright infringement, alleging that Zynga's recently released Facebook game The Ville copied EA's The Sims Social.

The Facebook-based Sims game launched a year ago with its distinctive pixilated universe, and maintains several million active players on the social network, EA said in a press release.

EA is pursuing the lawsuit on behalf of Maxis, the EA subsidiary that produces Sims games.

It is clear to "those of us at Maxis as well as to players and the industry at large" that The Ville is unmistakably similar to The Sims Social, said Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw.

Bradshaw cited Zynga's design choices, animations, visual arrangements, and character motions and actions as having been "directly lifted from The Sims Social."

"The copying was so comprehensive that the two games are, to an uninitiated observer, largely indistinguishable," she said.

Screenshots of various features in both games are embedded into Electronic Arts's complaint.

Zynga did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit is one based on principle, Bradshaw said, adding that Maxis is not the first studio to call out Zynga for copying creative content. EA simply had the financial and corporate resources to fight back, she said. EA insisted it is simply looking out for the little guys, hoping to protect the rights of other studios who can't protect themselves.

In January, the three-person team at NimbleBit their popular Tiny Tower game with Zynga's Dream Heights game. Game developer Buffalo Studios Zynga's social bingo game Zynga Bingo is a clone of its popular Facebook game Bingo Blitz.

The EA suit comes just two days after Zynga was following a poor showing in its second quarter earnings.

EA, meanwhile, announced today that the Sims 3 Seasons expansion pack is now.